There was no one at the party who was acting suspiciously. Some discussed the battle they just saw with their friends, some visited other tables to greet their acquaintances, while some were busily typing messages in their system windows. Burapha managed to pa.s.s through and reach the s.p.a.ce between the main table and the tables for special guests without attracting any attention.

He took a look at the two bottles in his hands. Opening the cap of one of them, the stench of the medicine entered his nose, causing him to cough. Burapha poured some of the powder onto his palm and used his tongue to lick it, and almost vomited from the taste.

The members of the Victorious Wolves Sect blocked him for advancing, but Burapha was in Lone Wolf"s line of sight, so the members were asked to step back and let Burapha pa.s.s.

Burapha walked past the guards and approached the table. He realized they were all discussing something important, as the atmosphere was tense. The topic must be quite serious since even Bluebird showed a stern expression.

"Oh, isn"t it Burapha? Come here. We are discussing some important matters right now," Beluga greeted him.

"h.e.l.lo, Mister Beluga. I still haven"t thanked you for helping me last time."

"Haha. You don"t need to be so thankful for something so trivial. Well, actually, Elso also helped you. I can"t take all the credit." Beluga introduced Elso to Burapha.

Burapha said his thanks to Elso before placing the two bottles on the table. Although he tried his best to show a poker face, everyone noticed that something must have happened.

"What happened, Brother Burapha?" asked Lone Wolf.

"We have a big problem. The thing is..."

Burapha calmly explained the situation that he got from Sebastian and the gang to others.

Listening to the story, everyone"s expressions changed. Nevertheless, all of them were smart enough not to behave strangely. They stealthily used energy reinforcement and found that they had indeed been poisoned.

"This bottle is for Big Brother Sila, and the other is for everyone."

Burapha was worried about the situation, so he forgot about charging them for the other bottle as Sebastian instructed. Even Sila shared the bottle he got with others.

The amount of powder within the bottle was less than they had thought. After everyone at the table had consumed some, the amount left was less than half of a bottle. The remaining amount should only be enough for three or four more people.

"Ned, where is the enemy?" Beluga asked with a stiff expression.

"If I don"t know the direction, it will take some time..."

"The forest to the south. There should be around five thousand players," said Burapha. He repeated what he was told.

Nednapha closed her eyes, and surprisingly, Sila did the same.

Out of the two, Sila spoke first. "It"s a red flag with the symbol of a lizard. Which guild does this army belong to?"

Nednapha opened her eyes and answered, "It"s not a lizard, but a kind of the dragon. It"s the symbol representing the Five Dragon Warlords. It seems the Heavenly Dragon Guild has started to take action."

The reason that Sila could visualize the army far away from him was thanks to the third skill he picked from Lost Grea, Far Sight. Sila recalled the time where Nednapha shot arrows at Savage Killer during the Heavenly Dragon Guild"s march on Colossia City. At that time, Sila could sense the direction of the attack, but he couldn"t see Nednapha. Therefore, he had been interested in the skill she used on him.

Actually, Sila had been polishing his qi and, as he was now, he should be able to extend his senses outward and reach similar distances. However, sensing with qi was different from seeing with Far Sight. With Far Sight, he was able to see into the distance with his own eyes, witnessing all of the details such as color, shape, and size. It was a useful skill for spying and giving commands.

"Shall we prepare an army to fight back?" suggested Elso.

"Don"t. It will unnecessarily alarm the enemy and put them on guard. We still don"t know the location of the mastermind who is spreading the poison."

Burapha interrupted again. "About that, Mister Sebastian and his friends said they will take care of those people when they take further action."

"How about we mix the Cleanse Antidote within the drinks?" Hermit suggested, "I tested the Cleanse Antidote before and it still worked when mixed with other liquids. This way, the enemy won"t pick up on it."

"But we don"t have that many Cleanse Antidotes."

Julia stepped forward. "Excuse me. Mister Head Butler has prepared as many as 40,000 bottles of Cleanse Antidote. I can summon them from the treasure room at any time."

"In that case, our guild will purchase all of them. Ratri, please make a transfer and bring Julia to the kitchen now."

Ratri argued. "Wait. We can"t afford to buy all of them. Each of them costs 5 gold, that"s a lot..."

"The Mountain Thieves League will pay half of it. Ned, hurry up and transfer the money."

As it was a race against time, Beluga made a quick decision and proceeded with the transaction.

Julia interrupted to deliver some good news. "With such a large order, Mister Head Butler allowed me to give you a twenty-percent discount. The total amount is 160,000 gold, dividing into only 80,000 each for both parties."

Everyone felt better. Spending a lot of money before the war event was something they wanted to avoid at all costs. For inevitable expenses like this one, any discount was a blessing.

Both Ratri and Julia left to proceed with the plan, while the rest continued discussing countermeasures.

"If that"s really the flag of the Five Dragon Warlords, that means the Heavenly Dragon Guild wants to take this opportunity to eliminate us before the alliance is formed. If they succeed, our people will suffer from the loss of losing levels and our morale will drop to the bottom. Montra already holds too many advantages, yet he still wants to cripple our power before the war event starts."

"Who are the Five Dragon Warlords?" asked Sila. In this game, he should be the only player who was still oblivious regarding this topic, even though he was one of the Heavenly Dragon Guild"s important enemies.

Bluebird frowned. "This information should already be included in the message we sent to you. Haven"t you read it yet?"

"There is too much information in that message. I was busy with other matters lately, so I haven"t had time to read it."

Most of Sila"s time was spent studying Heaven"s Decree Sword Art. Even though he just started studying it, he had already engraved every letter within the book into his memory.

Lone Wolf began to explain.

"The Five Dragon Warlords are the Heavenly Dragon Guild"s vice-leaders. Within their guild, they should be stronger than all but Montra and the Two Monarchs. After the last war event, every one of them has stayed in seclusion and have only sent their subordinates to do their work.

"Firstly, there is the Black Star Warlord, Lost Ghost. This man is a psychic-type player who uses a black javelin made of psychic power as his weapon. Once his javelin has pierced something, it cannot be removed unless he wills it. He is strong at close and mid-range combat. His fighting style is quite brutal, similar to Cross". He was only slightly inferior to Cross five years ago.

"The Star-Finishing Warlord, Cheris, is the sole female among the Five Dragon Warlords. She is a psychic type player as well. Her weapons are dual swords and her attack speed is frighteningly fast. If I have to compare, I would say that her swordsmanship is as quick as Varee"s, yet as imperceptible as Elso"s.

"The Sun-Extinguishing Warlord, Shuran, is a qi-type player. His attack range is comparable to Nednapha"s, though they have different fighting styles. While Nednapha is a tricky attacker who chips away at the enemy"s strength, Shuran is purely offensive. Most of the time he only fires one arrow in a battle, but it"s a powerful one that can change direction at any moment. If he targets us from a distance, we will have a difficult time opposing him.

"The Illusionist Warlord, Trick Master,is a magic-type player. He is a spellcaster who has apt.i.tude in multiple elements. The scary thing about him isn"t his spell"s raw power but his technique. It seems he can cast two spells at the same time. When taking his proficiency at Magic Delay into account, he can cast spell after spell continuously. People even gave him another t.i.tle, which is the King of Delayed Spells. I have to admit that he is one of the most formidable enemies.

"The last is the Three Stars Warlord, Zazae, another qi-type player. We have little information regarding this person. We only know a rumor about him, stating that he kills his target with no more than three moves, and has never failed. In the last war event, he only made an appearance at a later stage of the event and was the downfall of the Mountain Thieves League.

"They are the Five Dragon Warlords of the Heavenly Dragon Guild. They are all famous but don"t seem to have any important active duties within the guild. Their main contributions are recruiting people, training members, and taking action when called by Montra."

Beluga added, "Heh. Only a rich guild like the Heavenly Dragon Guild can manage to let the vice-leaders enjoy lives without doing any work. In the case of our guild, all of us, be it the leader or the grunt, have to do even the most basic jobs."

Sila did his best to memorize what Lone Wolf said. For the Black Star Warlord, he recalled that he had first heard about this person when he started the game. As for the Star-Finishing Warlord, she was actually Yardpirun, who was acting as a spy. About the Sun-Extinguishing Warlord, he believed he had heard this name twice. The first was when Sangdao mentioned his name as one of the best long-range sharpshooters in Monster Soul, and the second time was when Paiyuan was trying to figure out his real ident.i.ty.

He was quite sure he had never heard of the Illusionist Warlord before, but it was kind of amazing to hear that someone could cast spells endlessly. When Sila thought about how to defeat him, all he could come up with was either ending the fight quickly or prolonging it so his opponent runs out of magic power.

As for the last person, the Three Stars Warlord, it was also his first time hearing about him. Nevertheless, for this person to be able to kill all of the enemies so far within three moves, this person should be terrifyingly strong. Even Sila wasn"t sure that he could accomplish such a feat every time even if his opponents were no-name players, especially if they were tankers.

"We should expect the worst case scenario to be that all of the Five Dragon Warlords will come at us. In this case, what should we do?" asked Hermit.

"It"s simple, isn"t it? We split up and either take them on by ourselves or with a partner," Sila simply expressed his opinion.

The table fell into silence before bursts of laughter came from Lone Wolf and Beluga"s mouths. Even Elso, who always wore a solemn expression, showed a faint smile.

"Hahaha. It"s indeed as simple as that. You are very funny, you know, Sila? Look, even Elso, who is always trying to keep his cool, smiled at your suggestion."

Begula heartily laughed and teased his subordinate, causing Elso to restore his poker face.

"Sila"s plan sounds good, but don"t forget that our opponents aren"t only these five. Aside from the five thousand players that will ambush us later, their people should have already snuck into the party."

Lone Wolf showed his concern, and Beluga summarized their plan.

"For the main part, let"s stick with Sila"s idea. Most of us will engage in battles against the Five Dragon Warlords. That leaves Hermit, Ratri, and Nednapha to control our allies in the party to fight against the lurkers."

"In that case, Varee and Sangdao can help. Both of them are skilled at fighting against groups," proposed Sila.

Sangdao nodded, while Varee argued.

"How come you get to fight one of the Five Warlords, but I don"t? Do you think I will lose? I"ve been playing this game for longer than you."

Lone Wolf tried to explain, "I believe Sila didn"t mean it that way. It"s just that the overall situation is more important. When we are keeping the Five Warlords in check, the skilled players on our side will have an equally difficult task to defeat the hidden enemies as soon as possible before their reinforcements arrive."

Since Lone Wolf said so, Varee no longer opposed the idea. She was fully aware that the situation was urgent, and it would be foolish to have a dispute over what jobs they were a.s.signed.

"Please let Lookhin help. Lookhin also shines in group battles," Sila requested.

"Leave the Star-Finishing Warlord to me. I will handle her alone."

Suddenly, Bluebird volunteered to fight a one-on-one battle against one of the Five Dragon Warlords. Everyone looked at him.

Hermit tried to oppose the idea. "You shouldn"t. At the very least, let someone accompany you. Cheris is a formidable opponent. I"m afraid that Mister Bluebird alone..."

Bluebird raised his hand up to stop Hermit"s argument. "I have one or two tricks up my sleeve. I a.s.sure you that I can take care of Cheris by myself."

The others still hesitated to let Bluebird fight alone. At that time, Sila said, "I"m sure Bluebird alone is enough. We don"t need to worry."

Consequently, everyone recalled that Bluebird was a vice-leader of one of the most important guilds. Even though he hadn"t shown his skills to the world so far, it might be possible that he was, in fact, a supreme powerhouse, something like the Blue Pigeon Guild"s secret weapon. With Sila"s words of confidence, they no longer opposed the decision and began to look at Bluebird with a gaze of admiration.

Though, in fact, Sila was just aware that Cheris" real ident.i.ty was Yardpirun. For this reason, there should be no danger for Bluebird in taking this role.

Actually, there was another person who was aware of the fact, and that was White Swan. She knew the fact behind Bluebird"s bravery but there was no way she could reveal the truth. All she could do was scold Bluebird in her mind: You d.a.m.n cheater!

Beluga began to a.s.sign roles to the other members.

"It is unlikely that Shuran will show up at the party. He will be standing by from afar and shooting at us when we show any openings. The only one who can handle him will be you, Nednapha. You have to support everyone from behind the scenes. Keep yourself safe, find Shuran, and fire your arrows to help our teammates; these will be your tasks. Do your best to keep him occupied."

Nednapha nodded. "What about the others?"

Beluga continued. "Lone Wolf, you will have to handle Zazae alone. As for me, I am a tanker, so I will cooperate with Elso to defeat Trick Master."

Lone Wolf looked askance at Beluga. In his opinion, even Beluga alone should be enough to keep one of the Five Dragon Warlords in check.

Receiving the gaze, Beluga knew what Lone Wolf was wondering and gave an honest answer with a smile.

"Why raise the level of difficulty when we can set it at easy? With Elso and I working together, we will have a chance to defeat our opponents in quick succession and still have time left to spare."

Burapha said, "In that case, Big Brother Sila and I will have to fight Lost Ghost, right?"

Sila shook his head. "No, I will handle Lost Ghost alone. As for you, Burapha, your task is..."

While Burapha was listening to Sila"s plan, the members of Victorious Wolves Sect began to serve drinks to all the guests in the party, along with a delicious dish. Naturally, people began to eat and drink, enjoying the party to the fullest. As a result, the previous tension that had built up was fading away.

If everything went according to the plan, it was certain that even the Five Dragon Warlords would undoubtedly lose. However, deep in everyone"s minds, they were pondering why Montra chose to invade them now of all times when all of the people hostile to the Heavenly Dragon Guild were present.

Fifteen minutes slowly pa.s.sed, and finally, the decisive moment that everyone was waiting for had come at long last. A particular player stood up on the table, attracting the attention of everyone at the party. This person was wearing a hood, but his physique gave away that he was surely a man.

At the same time, killing intent was being emitted from several locations. Some of the power being unleashed could even threaten Sebastian. The butler frowned and exclaimed.

"Hey, hey. Is this for real? This is totally unexpected. It seems that this kid Montra spells more danger than I have ever imagined. He is even more disastrous than Mister Sila."

Similarly, Asura and Franz could sense bizarre powers from five different spots. They were catastrophic powers at the realm humanity couldn"t have possibly attained.

The man standing on the table removed his hood. The face that he revealed was one most people recognized. He was Venom.

"Lone Wolf and all of you!! You all here are a bunch of people daring to become the enemies of the great Heavenly Dragon Guild. Such a group of insolent b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who can"t even tell right from wrong! Today, I, Venom, as the representative of the Magic Emperor Montra, have volunteered to come and punish your preposterous gang of vile people!! Soon, the world will come to know what kind of fate awaits you fools who dare to resist the will of heaven!!"

As soon as people saw Venom"s face, the first word that popped into their minds was "poison." Everyone tried to unleash their powers but ended up in vain. Their bodies went limp and fell down. It seemed it would take some more time until the Cleanse Antidote could show its effect. Most players began to curse Venom, however, some of them stood up like nothing happened and unsheathed their weapons. They were a group of five hundred people from the Heavenly Dragon Guild who would soon deliver killing blows to all the "fools daring to resist the will of heaven."

Lone Wolf jumped onto the stage. "Using poison to render people helpless before taking action, do you still have the courage to call yourself the righteous side?"

"Yes, we use poison, and what about it? Anything is acceptable during the war. History is written by the victor. Today, you will see a demonstration of our might!"

Everyone at the main table stood up and scattered. Venom could tell that not one of them was poisoned, so he snapped his fingers as a signal.

"It seems you fools can somehow resist my poison. However, that will only make your suffering worse. You can"t possibly stand a chance against the current Five Dragon Warlords."

Four people stood up from their chairs. The powers being emitted from their bodies were incredibly intimidating. Sila and Lone Wolf could feel a strange, nostalgic power that they had almost forgotten.

"Watch out. There is something strange about them... Burapha, don"t forget what I told you," said Sila.

The voices of the paralyzed players were filled with fear and resentment. The clock was ticking, so Beluga, Elso, Lone Wolf, Burapha, Sila, Sangdao, Varee, and Bluebird quickly soared toward their a.s.signed opponents.

They thought everything would go according to the plan. With Sila and everyone"s strengths, even the Five Dragon Warlords wouldn"t be their match. However, an abrupt change soon occurred when all four of the warlords, excluding Shuran, extended their hands forward.

Four gla.s.s-like cards that looked extremely familiar appeared above their right hands. What came out from the warlords" mouths were inhumane voices that sounded as if they came from the bottom of the abyss, signaling the start of a nightmare.

"Gluttony! / l.u.s.t! / Envy! / Sloth!"

Their voices echoed together like a symphony of h.e.l.l, and the cards shattered into particles.

Now that all of the cards from the Seven Deadly Sins series were a.s.sembled and close to each other, the sun lost its light, and darkness began to cover the entire Main Continent.

It was the beginning of the great storm in Zhongsuyuan City. Sebastian had neither the time nor luxury to follow his original plan anymore. In this place, only he was well aware of the horrors of each of the cards.