Bagua City.

Chaos Moon and I were sitting on opposite sides of the table in a corner of a restaurant while staring at each other.

"Hey, you've been staring at me for a very long time. Are there flowers on my face or something?" I asked.

Chaos Moon burst into a giggle. "Nah, I just felt curious is all. You're becoming more and more of an enigma to me, Lu Chen. What do you think I should do?"

".... Nothing? And what does this have to do with me?"

"Well, a girl is always full of curiosity, and we especially like to figure out things or people we don't understand. So tell me, what do you think I should do?"

"Just do whatever you want…" I looked down and focused on eating my lamb meat paomo and lamb spine hot pot. The dishes tasted novel at the beginning, but now I just wished that there was something else to eat. These couldn't be the only dishes in the entire city, right?

……

"Oh right!" Chaos Moon suddenly said in realization, "You didn't see your Nation War reward after you went online, did you?"

"Er, yeah!" My eyes widened. "How did you know about that?"

"You poor boy…"

Chaos Moon curled her lips and said, "It's because Tang Long stripped you of your in-game nationality. Although your Nation War contribution points were 56% higher than the runner-up's, losing your nationality means that you don't qualify for the reward in the first place. Long story short, Luo River G.o.d of the Capital is the biggest winner of this Nation War, walking away with a Cambrian scepter. Even Lian Xin obtained a Cambrian cloak. It's such a shame. I bet you could get at least an Archean Divine Armament with your karma…"

Now the lamb meat was salty with the taste of my tears. "I didn't need to hear this, you b.i.t.c.h…"

Chaos Moon giggled. "Are you doing okay in Final Duel Valley?"

"Yeah, not bad. In fact I've been reaping so much experience that my weapon hand is shaking."

"Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"Of course. When my bag is full, I would like you to transport what I received to Dark Moon City. Li Chengfeng, Heaven's Rain, and all the brothers and sisters who died in Final Duel Valley need them."

"Got it. Give me a call when you need me, and I'll be at Final Duel Valley in an hour at most."

"Mn."

"Also… er… what I want to say is…" Chaos Moon suddenly squirmed in her seat.

I tilted my head and asked, "What is it now?"

A while later, she answered, "We were going to save you from Final Duel Valley, but… Tang Long of Sword Lord of Jianghu made it clear that they will kick any guild who dares to travel to Final Duel Valley from China. The threat was especially directed at Snowy Cathaya, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Blazing Hot Lips and the rest of our allies. Sister Eve and Sister Momo almost went crazy because of it…"

I shook my head smilingly. "It's fine. Seriously, I'm actually doing pretty well in Final Duel Valley. If anything, having too many people around will be a shackle that will prevent me from resorting to more… drastic options when given a chance."

"Well, that's true. Be careful though. You may just be fighting the j.a.panese right now, but the Indian experts such as Breeze and Rain, G.o.d of War, Flowing Cloud, Copper Spear and more may be joining in a couple of days. You must be careful. Sister Eve and I are really worried about you…"

"Relax, I can do it! And even if I can't, there's such a thing called running away, you know?"

"Hehe. Mn!"

……

It was past 7 pm when we finished dinner and returned to the hotel. The 4-star hotel of Bagua Cheng was definitely lousier than a Shanghai or Beijing hotel of the same star rating, but their night scenery more than made up for that minor flaw. I pulled aside the curtains and stared at the dazzling stars s.h.i.+ning on the night sky for a moment. This might be the first time I had ever seen such a clean and translucent sky in my life. I stood alone on the balcony for a very long time until finally, I muttered to myself, "It's time to work…"

I entered the game.

Swhoos.h.!.+

I appeared at the edge of Final Duel Valley and checked my level. I was now Level 199 and only 1 level away from hitting Level 200. By now, the level gap had widened so much that even Level 180+ seventh-promotion players could no longer satisfy my leveling needs. More accurately, I would need to kill at least a hundred of them before I could level up once, which was incredibly risky. I might have the courage to stay in Final Duel Valley and battle my enemies, but I wasn't dumb enough to charge their elite forces head-on. That would be suicide, not bravery.

I looked around me and saw no players. Just in case there were stealthing a.s.sa.s.sins nearby, I activated Dark Pupils and checked the minimap. There were no red dots, so I should be safe for now.

I walked out of my tent and summoned my mount and my pet. Then, I buffed myself with a Ghost Chariot Card. There was no need to be stingy when I still had a ton of Ghost Chariot Cards, Mingshe Cards and more in my warehouse. Of course, I was equally aware that I currently didn't have the right to speak with any NPC of Sky City, much less the ability to withdraw the items in my warehouse.

At least Dark Moon City was still firmly under my command. This meant that I could access most of the functions that were currently blocked off to me in other cities such as querying the warehouse and so on. The entire world could abandon me, but I could take comfort in the fact that Dark Moon City would always be my private territory. That being said, until I regained my in-game nationality, I wouldn't be able to teleport to Dark Moon City. That functionality was disabled for an unaffiliated player like me.

I set my sights to the south for a moment. If I exited Final Duel Valley from here, I would enter Lost Forest, and right behind Lost Forest was an undead territory called Frostbone Snow Region. That's right, it was none other than the undead fortress Sophie had founded a while ago. Ever since Sophie joined the human faction, she and her brethren had been residing in that fortress. In fact, I was the one who selected her choice of residence for her. At the time, I had made the choice thinking that Sophie might be able to help me with dealing with Purple Grape City somehow, and now that time had finally arrived. My plan was simple. I was going to ask Sophie to occupy Purple Grape City. Knowing how strong the second strongest boss in the entire Heavenblessed was, I couldn't wait to see Red Maple and his goons try to retake Purple Grape City from her!

But before that, I must first succeed in persuading Sophie. This was the part that worried me the most. Sophie and Xinran might be as close as sisters, but our relations.h.i.+p was best described as distant strangers at best. a.s.suming that things took a turn for the worst, she might even one-shot me before I could say anything. I must be careful.

I spurred my mount forward and galloped toward Frostbone Snow Region. A short while later, I encountered a hundred-man party with players between Level 175 and 185. They were obviously looking for me.

I sneaked up on them and ambushed them without a second thought. This time, I used my apparition to attract the enemy's firepower while the Phantom Wolf King attacked them from another side. Once they were sufficiently distracted, I went in and wiped out the entire 100-man party. I was never even close to dying. After I picked up the good equipment from the ground and threw it into my bag, I noted that I only had 300+ inventory slots left. That was just how many pieces of equipment I had acc.u.mulated up until this point. I could only imagine how much money I would get if I sold them all!

The floor of bodies filled me with a deep sense of accomplishment, but I dared not linger and quickly left the battlefield behind. I could always come back and take out my pursuers when the time was right.

Swhoos.h.!.+

After one-shotting a lone a.s.sa.s.sin who had the misfortune of running into me, I leveled up to 200 and felt better than ever before. Right now, China's highest-leveled player was Luo River G.o.d of the Capital at Level 202. At this rate, it should only take me a couple of days at most to surpa.s.s her and become the highest-leveled player in the entire China. That it was built atop countless Purple Grape City players' Level 0s was the icing on the cake!

……

After I entered Lost Forest, I made sure to keep a low profile and avoided every player that happened along my path as best I could. It was because Elephant City's players were also grinding in this map. While the feud between our players and j.a.pan's had grown much worse since the War of Purple Grape City, our relations.h.i.+p with India actually stayed relatively the same: wary, but no outright hostility. Both sides understood that they were doing this for the sake of profit, not hatred.

The weather began to turn cold when I neared the edge of the forest. The lush leaf forest had turned into a sea of snowy pines. A while later, snowflakes even started falling from the sky. The deeper I traveled into Frostbone Snow Region, the greater the snow became until finally, it felt like I was trekking across the north pole. Obviously, the unnatural weather around me had been created by Sophie. Her mastery over the power of ice was as good or even better than Xinran's, and it showed from the environment she had created with her own hands.

Rustle rustle...

Not far away, I spotted a group of Corpse Eaters making terrible screeching noises at each other in a frozen graveyard almost as if they were having a meeting with one another. Although I didn't understand what they were saying, their names were orange instead of the usual hostile red. This meant that they wouldn't attack me unless I provoked them first.

I saw no need to waste any time on these Corpse Eaters. I changed the Phantom Wolf King's action mode to follow and traveled deeper into Frostbone Snow Region.

Almost an hour later, I finally arrived at a dark blue-colored frost castle. It looked absolutely magnificent and was only a bit smaller and less grandiose than purple Grape City itself. A ton of high-level undead and even Asura experts with red eyes had appeared at the edge of the castle.

A troop of undead knights rode past me and kicked up a gust of cold wind that pierced the skin.

I gave the collar around my battle armor a pull before continuing forward. Then, two undead guards stepped out and stared at me with blood-red eyes, saying, "No need to hide yourself, boy! We can see that you're an undead expert. Now, tell us your business with this undead city!"

I looked up and revealed my Asura King pupils as they requested. "I wish to meet Sophie!"

"Haha, you wish to meet our queen? Do you realize what kind of nonsense you're spouting? Do you think anyone can meet Lady Sophie whenever they feel like it?"

I smiled. "Tell her that I'm Xinran's older brother."

"What? Wind Singer Xinran?"

One of the guards took two steps backward and turned whiter than paper. He said in a s.h.i.+vering voice, "You, you're that beautiful devil's older brother? Unbelievable! Please, come with us…"

……

I smiled. Xinran truly was my invincible trump card!

As I followed the two undead guards into the castle, I checked out the back of their heads before asking, "Hey dude, why is your ear missing? It almost looks like… someone had pulled it out of your head…"

The guard shuddered from head to toe before replying, "You should ask your sister about this…"

"Oh s.h.i.+t!"

If it wasn't obvious before, I now knew that Xinran had visited Frostbone Snow Region at least once in the past. They wouldn't have treated me with this much respect otherwise.

……

Suddenly, a cold light descended from the sky, causing the guard with a missing ear to stumble backward. At the same time, a sweet voice resounded beside our ears, "h.e.l.lo again, Commander Tall Sky! I remember you telling me that you're Sophie's strongest general, didn't you? Do you want to test out my new Ice Fire Palm Strike?"

As I thought, this guard was no ordinary undead. Right now though, he looked as white as a sheet. "You… you've invited yourself over again, Wind Singer?"

I looked up. A smiling Xinran was hovering in midair with her iconic Dragonbone Spear in hand and her white robes flapping behind her back. She was about to say something when she suddenly looked at me and s.h.i.+vered unnaturally. A moment later, she said in a daze, "Big brother… big brother! You were here? Did you know how long I searched for you at Sky City?"

"Xinran…"

Before I could say anything else, I let out an "oomph" as Xinran dove into my chest and hugged me tightly. We must've rolled across the snow at least a hundred meters before we finally came to a stop. She looked up at me with reddened cheeks and said with a bright smile, "I missed you so much, big brother!"

"..."