A Level 181 Hegemon Palace warrior stepped out of the crowd and waved his sword. He said, "What kind of stupid logic is that? You think you"re the boss of Sky City? You think you can have the A4 instance all to yourself just because it"s closer to your territory? Dream on! The A Rank instances are the shared property of every player in Sky City, and Hegemon Palace will be the first to dispute your claim!"

"Yeah! Who are you to make us pay 10 gold to get inside? Pooh!"

The warrior"s party members immediately voiced their agreement. Hegemon Palace had sent 25 players or 5 parties to challenge the instance, and each of them was over Level 180 and a fairly strong player in their own right. Unfortunately, I highly doubted that they were strong enough to give Sword Lord of Jianghu a challenge without their experts, Little Piglet and Shangguan Wan"er.

Murmurs of dissatisfaction rippled across the crowd. Hegemon Palace"s plan to rile up the crowd seemed to be working because they started approaching Sword Lord of Jianghu players. Some of them even had their weapons drawn already. There were a ton of guilds who staked their claims to leveling maps, but Sword Lord of Jianghu had to be the first to stake their claim to a high-level instance.

……

"What"s going on?! Quiet down, men!"

Someone suddenly shouted and stepped out into the open. He was a black-robed mage with the vice leader emblem floating on his shoulder, and he was none other than Now and Forever, the Onmyouji. The man swept his gaze across the one thousand plus players in front of him before saying, "My men are just clearing out the last group of mobs, people. In fact, many of them are running back to their bodies and resurrecting right now, so please give us an hour"s time. Once an hour is up, I, Now and Forever, promise you that you are free to enter the A4 instance anytime you want."

"Pooh!"

However, the Hegemon Palace warrior simply spat on the ground and sneered, "Like I give a s.h.i.+t about your circ.u.mstances! Let"s go get our quest and enter the instance, brothers and sisters! Don"t worry, if Sword Lord of Jianghu dares to touch a hair on us, Hegemon Palace will destroy them and flatten their territory like the ants they are!"

I gave the guy three claps inside my head. It was obvious that neither side was a pushover. Sword Lord of Jianghu wanted to establish their reputation and power through monopolizing the A4 instance, and Hegemon Palace was there to challenge them. The high-level warrior had risked his own life to give Hegemon Palace a reason to openly declare war on Sword Lord of Jianghu. It was because the latter hadn"t grown so strong that Hegemon Palace couldn"t beat them yet. The location of their new territory was also excellent. I bet Hegemon Palace had been coveting it for a very long time.

……

Angered by the challenge, Now and Forever raised his scepter and shouted, "Cavalry units, prepare to charge! Try forcing your way through, and I"ll give you a taste of camping, you motherf.u.c.kers!"

The high-level warrior of Hegemon Palace and his guildmates grew angry as well. "You hear that, brothers and sisters from Sky City? It"s bad enough they occupied an entire instance, now they"re even threatening to kill us! Do they really think that we"re cowards? If you have b.a.l.l.s then charge with me and take out these f.u.c.kers!"

He rushed forward, and several hundred players let out battle cries and followed behind him. The fragile peace had shattered, and now, almost 400 casual players were attacking Sword Lord of Jianghu.

Now and Forever raised his scepter again and ordered, "Take them out! Mages and archers, max-range bombardment! Priests, keep our players healed! Today, we will defend this map like we defend our own territory!"

The ground shook for a moment, and a troop of cavalry burst out from the side and charged toward the attacking players. The leader of the cavalry was none other than Amber Pupil, the rookie who put on quite the performance during the WEL nationals. When he got close to the high-level warrior, he summoned flames to his weapon and hit the latter with Fire Triple Slash, killing him instantly.

"Kill them all!"

All of Sword Lord of Jianghu"s players were buffed by their bards and had their Attack boosted by 100% thanks to Encourage VII. If the first charge scattered the group of casual players, then the second charge was just a ma.s.sacre. That was discounting the fact that a thousand mages and archers were raining arrows and spells at them from their hiding spots. They definitely had a grasp of the land near their territory. This level of attack wasn"t something any group of casual players could hope to defeat.

Ten minutes later, the battle ended in the clear favor of Sword Lord of Jianghu.

Pa pa pa...

A low-health archer was stumbling through the forest and running for his life. He was a Level 182 Mad Dragon archer with decent level and equipment. It was why he alone survived the enemy"s Spiraling Arrow Blades and Galaxy Storms when so many others did not.

Unfortunately, he was chased by several hundred cavalrymen, and there was no chance in h.e.l.l he could outrun them. Riding at the forefront was none other than Amber Pupil himself. The knight shouted, "We could"ve settled this peacefully, but nooooo, you just had to attack us, huh!? Very well, we will ma.s.sacre every last one of you! This is Sword Lord of Jianghu"s territory, and no one is allowed to disrupt our peace!"

The panicked archer wasn"t even looking where he was running, but he looked back at Amber Pupil and shouted angrily, "f.u.c.k you, motherf.u.c.kers! Just you wait, my brothers and sisters will show up and slaughter you all! You will regret your arrogance today!"

Amber Pupil simply smiled and raced after him. The distance between them was shortening steadily.

Bang!

As mentioned earlier, the archer wasn"t looking where he was going. As a result, he ran right into my Armored Ice Qilin Horse and fell flat on the ground. When he looked up, he exclaimed in shock, "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand… Lian Xing… Why are you guys here…"

I shot him a glance but didn"t say anything.

It was at this moment the group of riders burst out of the foliage. However, the moment Amber Pupil saw us, he raised his arm in a hurry and stopped his troops from advancing further. "Lu Chen?"

Again, I smiled and said nothing at all.

The Mad Dragon archer looked like he had found a plank amid the sea. After he ran behind my back and grabbed the Armored Ice Qilin Horse"s tail, he yelled, "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, Sword Lord of Jianghu is trying to monopolize the A4 instance! You guys are the sovereign of Sky City, right? You have to stop this, or Sky City will fall into their hands!"

However, I snorted and sneered at the guy, "Let"s make one thing clear here, okay? Sword Lord of Jianghu can kill you for all I care. Mad Dragon is no friend of Ancient Sword, not to mention that Roaming Dragon has attacked Dark Moon City before. Just because I haven"t pursued the matter doesn"t mean that I"ve forgotten about it, understand?"

Amber Pupil and pointed his sword at the archer. "You hear that, coward? Now come out and accept your death already! Lu Chen will not protect you!"

Chiang!

I wasn"t done though. As I slowly unsheathed my sword—sparks flew off the point of contact between the blade and the sheath—I continued with a smile, "Correct, I will not protect a Mad Dragon player. However, I am planning to enter A4 to grind some experience, and someone is blocking my way. I, Lu Chen, fear no one in Sky City. If Sword Lord of Jianghu must block my way, then I must kill Sword Lord of Jianghu, understand?"

"You!"

Amber Pupil"s eyes instantly turned unfriendly. He only had about 500 mounted players, and only 10% of them had reached Level 180. Only seventh-promotion magic knights could use Trapping Net, and my level was more than 10 levels above theirs. Therefore, the chances of their Trapping Net immobilizing me was less than 5%!

More importantly, I wasn"t alone. On her hand, He Yi was holding the Seven Star Veluriyam Spear in one hand and Mingyue in the other. My dark archer, Beiming Xue, also appeared in the distance without a sound. Her bow was already drawn and covered in red undead energy. One wrong move, and she would unleash h.e.l.l upon them.

Amber Pupil examined us for a moment before deciding to stay his hand for now. He turned around and shouted, "Withdraw to the plains! We will continue defending the A4 instance there!"

……

I swore inside my head. I couldn"t believe these motherf.u.c.kers were actually trying to stop us. Us, the pillars of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! Who gave them the courage to do so? What good could they possibly reap from this? Did they really think that this would boost their reputation?

"Chase them!"

I spurred my mount and summoned the Phantom Wolf King. I also imbued the Purple Ying Sword with undead energy as I chased Amber Pupil and his men all the way to a large opening within the forest. Already, their players were in formation and ready to receive us. Almost a thousand cavalrymen were lining up at the front, and a couple hundred archers, mages and priests were standing behind them.

Standing at the forefront, Now and Forever glared back and forth between us and the bodies on the ground before asking, "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, we don"t have a grudge with Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, do we? Why are you taking revenge for Mad Dragon?"

Keeping my sword lowered, I answered, "I"m not taking revenge for anyone. I"m just here for the A4 instance. I suggest that you get out of our way now, or else…"

"Or else what?" Amber Pupil shouted angrily, "You think you"re something just because you won the WEL? You are standing on Sword Lord of Jianghu"s territory right now! Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls or not, you will not act as you please!"

Now and Forever frowned at his corps commander. He was going to negotiate and buy a bit more time for his people to rally, but Amber Pupil had practically flushed that plan down the drain with his retort.

"Ready your arms and prepare to defend, people! Archers will use Shock Arrows and Mountain Stagger Arrows, and mages will use Arctic Rain. Our opponent is fast and strong. They are only five, but do not underestimate them, understand!?" Now and Forever ordered. A battle was unavoidable at this point.

After I put Lian Xin on the ground, ahd He Yi Murong Mingyue, I whispered in the party channel, "I"ll use my apparition to punch through their frontline with Purple Dragon Howl. Once an opening appears, I want Eve to ride in from the flanks and kill their archers and mages. Sis, use your Ironwing Dragon to draw away the enemy"s firepower and provide us some cover. Beiming, use Skypiercer and teach their ranged cla.s.ses what h.e.l.l is. Little Xin, you attack with Eve!"

"Will do!" The girls nodded in unison. Five versus a couple thousand? This is going to be fun!

……

Swhoos.h.!.+

I summoned my apparition and made it use Earth Escape. The enemy didn"t notice it because I was also activating Great Earth Transformation at the same time. To ensure my apparition"s safety, I even moved it to the other side of their formation before planning my attack. Purple Dragon Howl could only be used if the user had max HP and MP, so the apparition couldn"t take any damage no matter what.