After logging into the game, I teleported to Dark Moon City and was immediately astonished by what I saw. The new Dark Moon City looked a lot more majestic than before. The territory hall stood tall and proud in front of me, and its entrance was secured by a thick and heavy iron gate covered in spikes. It would take a lot of energy to breach it. The entire building was surrounded by some sort of thick dark cyan-colored ice armor that made it look like an iron fortress. Anyone who wished to enter it would have to overcome a considerable amount of resistance.
The rest of the structures inside the city also underwent a ma.s.sive transformation. The walls were taller and longer than before. The city itself was expanded and protected by many arrow towers and watchtowers. Udal was patrolling the city with a thousand Ghost G.o.d Knights. These Level 150 ancient-rank NPCs were extremely powerful, and they could easily fight ten enemies by themselves. Moreover, their level and stats automatically increased based on average player level, so they would always be a critical component in our army when defending against a raid, or when raiding another city ourselves.
The rank increase of the city also increased the rank of the barracks, the Desolate Knight"s Grave, to 8. Once it hit Rank 9 I could start ma.s.s-producing Ghost G.o.d Knights, so I refrained from recruiting Dark Knights. Stat-wise, the Rank 9 Ghost G.o.d Knight was at least 35% stronger than the Rank 6 Dark Knight, not to mention that high-rank units would be the backbone of future territory wars or even Nation Wars. All low-rank units would become cannon fodder eventually, and I do not welcome cannon fodder in my ranks!
There was still an empty s.p.a.ce in the city however; the Dragon"s Grave. It could only be constructed when the city had reached Rank 10. A Dragon"s Grave was used to recruit the ultimate unit an undead castle could produce, the Dark Earth Dragons, and I could hardly wait for that day to come. For now though, I decided against recruiting any units and save up about a week of resources to upgrade the city to Rank 9. An attacked city couldn"t be challenged again for 15 days, and it was a breather our guild appreciated for sure.
Of course, I welcomed anyone to try and attack us. As a guild who grew our strength through war, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls feared no challenge.
……
After loitering inside the city for a bit and repairing my equipment, I took a moment to check my bank account. What I saw caused me to jump on my feet. It was because my balance had skyrocketed by a whopping 120 million RMB!
I rubbed my eyes in disbelief as I stared at the number. What happened? Where did this money come from? Did I buy a lottery and forgot completely about it?
After I checked the transaction details, I realized that the money had come from Air Force One. More specifically, 10000 Rank 8 Strength Supplements I had put up for sale had sold out completely, and for the exorbitant price of ten thousand RMB per bottle at minimum! It was no wonder that I gained 120 million RMB even after all the taxes. Spirit Cooking really was the secret to enormous wealth!
Overwhelming joy filled my heart for a moment. The opportunity to earn money was fleeting. If I missed it now I would have to find a new one. Right now everyone still needed the Rank 8 Strength Supplements to learn Barrier Break, but that could change entirely in just a week or, worst case scenario, three days. The potion would be worthless once everyone grinded enough levels to acc.u.mulate 1400 Strength or more, so I should make more Strength Supplements while it was still valuable and earn as much money as possible.
The reason so many people buying the Strength Supplements at this ridiculous price was because the major guilds were building up their ace fighters. Sky City alone had tens of millions of fighters which meant that 10000 Strength Supplements clearly weren"t enough to meet the demand. I wondered how many people were wis.h.i.+ng that they could be me right now?
I ran to the warehouse, took out the Agaves, bought a bunch of herbs and food ingredients and began synthesizing more Rank 8 Strength Supplements right away. Less than half an hour later, I unloaded a truck load of supplements on Air Force One, put up an ad post and happily waited for more money to flood into my bank account.
I couldn"t help but feel proud of myself as I stared at the gold in my game account. Who would"ve thought that the first true pot of gold of my life would be earned from selling these una.s.suming potions and not some divine equipment? At first glance, 10000 RMB wasn"t much, but the sales were so good that the wealth I gained from them was absolutely ridiculous!
f.u.c.k yeah!
I transferred a hundred million RMB to He Yi"s bank account right away and kept the remaining twenty million or so earnings to myself. A man"s savings was the equivalent of his backbone, and any man with at least twenty million in their bank account could say almost anything with some confidence. Also, He Yi and Murong Mingyue had been very busy establis.h.i.+ng their new company. As their “shareholder” I didn"t mind investing in their business at all.
Less than two minutes later, I heard a call notification—
Beep!
System Notice: Your friend “From Water” is calling you from a Multi-SIM phone. Do you accept?
After I accepted the call, He Yi asked me immediately, “Lu Chen, did you rob a bank or something? W-why did I receive a message that you transferred a hundred million RMB to me?”
I smiled. “Nah, I just exploited something that"s almost a bug and earned a lot of money, that"s all. What"s wrong? Is it too little?”
He Yi smiled very sweetly. “Of course not, hehe. Mingyue and I are heading to Changzhou right now, and it so happens that the subsidiary company over there is lacking in capital. Your timing couldn"t be any more perfect, Lu Chen! You are the super savior of Raincube for three days!”
That deflated me a little. In the end, even a hundred million RMB was only enough to keep the boat afloat for three days.
“Alright, you should focus on your driving. I"m going to find a place to grind now.”
“Mn, see you later! Let"s have dinner together when Mingyue and I come back!”
“Okay~”
I closed the call and took to the road with renewed spirits. First, I teleported to Violet Empire. Then, I traveled to the palace hall and sought out Shadow Dancer Xue Wei. She should be able to lead me to Xinran at the G.o.d Domain.
Thud thud thud…
I ran up the stairs until I entered the palace hall. I saw Queen Sophia sitting regally in her throne and her subjects standing on both sides of the hall. Shadow Dancer Xue Wei was among them as well.
“Eh? Why are you here?” Xue Wei walked up to me with a friendly smile.
I shrugged and replied, “Long time no see, Xue Wei. I"m here to see Xinran. Is she still at the G.o.d Domain?”
“Yes, Lord Wind Singer is still searching for the divine sites. Should I take you to her?”
“Yes, thank you!”
I followed Xue Wei all the way to the altar. She summoned a magical formation and tore open a rift in s.p.a.ce. Xue Wei wasn"t coming with me, so she simply nodded from the side and watched as I leaped into the rift.
Swhoos.h.!.+
My vision brightened as the apocalyptic sight of the G.o.d Domain entered my eyes again. The ground was littered with the bones of the G.o.ds, giant statues in their image were crumbling or destroyed, and all that was left of their sacred halls were rubbles.
I didn"t walk far before I saw a flash of red in the sky. It was a girl clad in red cape and wielding the colorful Dragonbone Spear. Directly in front of her was a savage-looking winged dragon spitting flames from its mouth. It was only five meters long though.
“There is nowhere for you to escape to, brute!”
Xinran shouted and struck the giant dragon so hard with her Dragonbone Spear that it screamed in pain. After she opened her palm and pulled herself onto the back of the giant dragon"s back, she hammered its head ruthlessly and growled, “You will pay for the lives you"ve taken and the damage you"ve caused!”
To my surprise, the giant dragon actually looked back at her and begged in a deep voice, “I lost, Wind Singer. Please let me go, I promise I won"t eat humans anymore.”
Xinran simply responded with a punch so hard that it sent the scales on its head flying. “You dare beg for mercy? You think I didn"t know what you did when the Dragon Speaker showed you mercy and let you go? You were one of their antagonizers during the Dragon Domain War! Hmph, brutes like you should be beaten to death!”
Xinran punched the dragon non-stop as she spoke. Unable to maintain its flight any longer, it fell from the sky and started gliding toward my direction!
Bang!
A giant cloud of dust erupted from the point of impact, and the screaming dragon skidded across the ground until it came to a stop just one meter away from my Stormy Waves War Boots. The animal was at death"s door already, but when it looked up and saw me it said in the arrogant voice of a dragon, “Heh, a human here in G.o.d Domain? Unbelievable. Hey boy, you look like you have several pounds of flesh on you. Do you wanna be my supper tonight?”
I unsheathed the Cyan Netherworld Sword in one fluid motion and said, “Xinran, do you think it"ll shut up if I cut its head from its neck?”
When Xinran saw who I was, she immediately jumped off the dragon"s head and jumped into my embrace. Burying her face into my chest, she said happily, “Big brother, you finally came to see Xinran…”
For a second, I couldn"t tell if this Xinran was the scarily powerful Wind Singer or the mushroom-picking loli I had met a long time ago.
The giant dragon visibly shuddered when it saw how friendly I was with Xinran. It immediately changed its att.i.tude to reverence and cordiality. “Oh, honorable human brave, how can you turn that dark and gloomy sword on your loyal servant? Did you not know that I, Akachi the Winged Silver Dragon, am the Wind Singer"s most loyal servant…?”
I shot the dragon a glance before putting an arm around her shoulder and pointing a finger at it. “What the h.e.l.l is this thing, Xinran? I"ve never seen such an ugly dragon in my life.”
Akachi the Winged Silver Dragon immediately started s.h.i.+vering when its eyes met Xinran"s.
Xinran giggled. “Big brother, this dragon"s name is Akachi. It"s a cruel, wicked, and cunning monster who destroyed many human towns. I"ve been tracking it for over a month, and today I finally found a chance to wound it seriously.”
I immediately raised the Cyan Netherworld Sword with a smile. “That"s wonderful. Can I kill it? It"ll level me up, and it might reward me with a pet dragon egg!”
The Winged Silver Dragon immediately blurted in shock, “Please don"t, young hero! I"m a male!”