Lu Buyi led the rest of us deeper into the woods and we soon entered a big glade. There were a few hundred people waiting to greet us and they were all members of Waste and Burn. A barbarian warrior holding a long-handled blood-red battle axe was standing at their head. He was the guild leader of Waste and Burn, Freezing Point. He looked to be about thirty years of age, and his features were fierce and bold. I didn"t know him personally, but a person that someone like Lu Buyi would follow shouldn"t be too bad of a person.
As he saw us enter the glade, Freezing Point hefted his battle axe and walked towards us. He let out a roar of laughter. “It seems like we got into a bit of a scuffle with Mad Dragon. Thank goodness the vice leader of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was around to help us. If not, we"d have been completely destroyed.
I glanced at the dozen or so survivors of Waste and Burn behind me. The truth was that they had practically been wiped out even with my help, but I merely laughed and said, “It was nothing. I just happened to stumble upon what was happening, so I decided to help the side who was being bullied. Besides, the Mad Dragon guild is one of our longtime enemies, so it"s inevitable for us to fight if we meet each other in the wild.”
“Yeah!” Freezing Point laughed as he nodded his head. He replied, “Brother Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, I"ll always remember the help that you"ve given us today. If you ever need Waste and Burn"s help, you just need to call! We"ll be there, come h.e.l.l or high water!”
A small smile appeared on my face. “So do you still plan on fighting Mad Dragon?”
“Mad Dragon slaughtered our comrades, so how can we just let bygones be bygones!?” Freezing Point yelled as his eyes went cold and flat. “There isn"t any reason for us to s.h.i.+rk from battle. Besides, Waste and Burn has been grinding in the Windmill Forest for a very long time. We won"t surrender our home so easily! Am I right guys!?”
The group of players behind him immediately waved their weapons in the air as they yelled, “We"ll follow the guild leader forever!”
I asked, “Freezing Point, how many players does Waste and Burn have altogether?”
“We established this guild about a month ago, and we have one thousand four hundred and seventy-eight people altogether. We haven"t really been able to recruit anyone else…” Freezing Point said in a rather helpless voice. He waved his hands before he continued, “There are far too many guilds, both small and large, in Sky City, and we don"t have any iconic players who can recruit other people. However, we still have more than one thousand four hundred players, so we should be able to go head to head with Mad Dragon!”
I couldn"t help but chuckle when I heard those words. “Do you know how many players Mad Dragon has? The main guild itself is a Rank 5 guild, so it contains ten thousand people alone. Furthermore, Mad Dragon also has eight subguilds, which have five thousand people each, which adds up to forty thousand players in total. Which is also to say that the Mad Dragon guild really has fifty thousand people altogether. Freezing Point, do you think your one thousand four hundred men will be able to stand against them. You should also remember this. Roaming Dragon has always been a petty and vengeful person. If you anger him, he might just send ten thousand people after you on a petulant whim, and they will hunt the members of Waste and Burn down until your guild disbands. I hope you don"t think I"m trying to scare you, because I"ve seen this sort of thing happen far too many times.”
Freezing Point froze when he heard my words. After that, he cleared his throat loudly, but it was clear that he didn"t know how to respond to what I had just said.
The other members of Waste and Burn were just floored as their guild leader. It was only now that they understood the true measure of their opponent. Many of them couldn"t help but suck in cold breaths of air. They thought that they had fought against Mad Dragon"s main forces just now, but they had really only “touched the tip of the iceberg”.
After a good long while, Freezing Point finally nodded his head. He seemed to have come to a conclusion. He looked at me and said, “Brother Broken Halberd, from your standpoint, what do you think Waste and Burn should do now?”
I glanced towards Lu Buyi and said, “I do have a suggestion, but it"s really only a suggestion. You"re free to accept or reject it and I wouldn"t want to force you into doing anything.”
“Please feel free to speak, Brother Broken Halberd.”
“Well, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls has become one of the top guilds in China, and we have already built a name for ourselves in Sky City, so we are actually in the process of expanding and establis.h.i.+ng subguilds. Right now, we have seven subguilds but we can cooperate with Waste and Burn by creating an eighth. This eighth subguild will be mainly formed out of the members of Waste and Burn and you, Freezing Point, will continue to be its guild leader. We won"t interfere with the everyday administration of the eighth subguild, we will only mobilize with you if we are doing a guild-wide activity. This way, Waste and Burn can come under Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls banner as our eighth subguild and you"ll be able to fill up your ranks in no time at all! If you can quickly raise your guild"s rank to 5, you"ll be able to recruit ten thousand members and you"ll be strong enough to face off against Mad Dragon"s main guild.”
I carefully observed Freezing Point"s facial expression as I said those words. “This is only a suggestion. The decision is wholly in your hands. You"re free to reject it as you please. I won"t try to force your hand.”
“Okay.” Freezing Point slowly nodded his head. He wore a conflicted expression on his face, and it was clear that he was struggling with the idea. After a long time pa.s.sed, Lu Buyi finally stepped forward and said, “Freezing Point, why don"t we take his offer. Right now, we really don"t have the strength to go toe to toe with Mad Dragon. Since Lu Chen has already shown such sincerity, it"s no use putting on airs.”
Freezing Point let out a resigned sigh before he said, “Okay, then Waste and Burn shall come under the banner of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. However, Brother Broken Halberd, there"s one thing I still don"t quite know. What exactly are your guild"s objectives?”
I laughed before I raised my fist in the air and spoke in a bright and clear voice, “Before the Nation Wars, we aim to forge bonds of brotherhood which will last for all time! During the Nation Wars, we plan to fight off all comers and protect our home!”
When Lu Buyi heard that, he started clapping vigorously. “That"s right! That"s exactly the sort of att.i.tude and bearing the vice leader of a super guild should have! Lu Chen, we are willing to follow under the banner of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. We will fight off all invaders and protect our home!”
Freezing Point nodded his head as well. He grinned as he said, “Then, I hope that we have a fruitful relations.h.i.+p!”
“Yeah!”
After that, I gave Freezing Point control over a new subguild and he started to quickly add all of the Waste and Burn players into them. They had officially become Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls" eighth subguild and there were one thousand four hundred and seventy-eight of them in total.
Ah, this is a little sad. When we had established the seven other subguilds, we turned them into Rank 3 guilds within three days and all two thousand slots were fully taken up the moment that happened. Waste and Burn really wasn"t that powerful compared to them.
“Then, shall we go back to Sky City and start recruiting?” Freezing Point asked, the excitement apparent in his voice.
I nodded my head. “Yeah, that sounds good. Remember, the entry requirements must be set high. Don"t take in any players who are weaker than Level 120 for now. Right now, the minimum standard for newly-recruited players is that they must all be fifth-promotion players. If not, the new subguild will be very weak.”
Freezing Point was quite shocked. “The entry requirements are that high?”
“Why? You don"t have any confidence in yourselves?”
“Hahaha, don"t you worry! I have confidence in spades. Trust me, vice leader. I"ll definitely lead the eighth subguild well!”
“Okay, then I"ll leave you to it!”
“Okay!”
Freezing Point took out a return scroll and disappeared before my eyes. Lu Buyi grinned at me and added me as a friend before he used a return scroll as well. After all, he was still one of Freezing Point"s men.
……
After I saw off the members of Waste and Burn, I continued to wander through the Windmill Forest. I killed Mad Dragon players whenever I encountered them and if I met any squad below a hundred men, I"d just charge in and kill them. After that, I would use Earth Escape to disappear without a trace. They didn"t have many high-level players, so they couldn"t see through my Earth Escape, so it was the perfect “getaway car”.
There were quite a few dragon bones scattered around the Windmill Forest and Agave grew abundantly around these bones. I had a wild time harvesting all of them and I had collected nearly a hundred bundles of Agave by the time two hours had pa.s.sed. Countless Mad Dragon players had died under my blade by then, and Roaming Dragon desperately chased after me with Coldmoon Rose, Iron Pardon, and Inconstant. However, with my hit-and-run guerilla tactics, they"d never be able to find me in this huge forest. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Beep!
Gui Guzi sent me a message: “Boss Broken Halberd, are you having a lot of fun in the Windmill Forest? Mad Dragon is currently gathering a few of their subguilds and they said that they"re going to flatten the entire place.”
I laughed loudly: “It"s been alright. Oh right! Little Gui, what"s the situation in the Cyan Tiger Forest right now? How many Cyan Tiger mounts did our guys manage to tame?”
Gui Guzi replied: “It"s been going really well. We"ve already managed to catch more than four hundred Cyan Tigers. So even the most conservative estimate would put us at over two thousand Cyan Tigers by the time we finish sweeping through this map. Basically, all of the magic knights and wanderers in the main guild will have a Cyan Tiger mount by the end of the day. Heh heh.”
“That"s great news! Well done. Tsk tsk, it wouldn"t be wrong to say that our main guild"s cavalry troops will be invincible at this current stage of the game! Keep hustling!”
“Yeah, you too!”
“Okay!”
……
I closed my chat window and burrowed my way into a little copse in the woods. Two a.s.sa.s.sin players were slowly creeping forward in stealth mode, but it was their unlucky day. No one could hide from my Dark Pupils. I burst out of the ground and swiftly cut through both of them. To my surprise, I saw Mad Dragon"s main force just ahead of me. Roaming Dragon had gathered more than three thousand people in a vast clearing in the Windmill Forest.
“Ahhhh!”
As he waved the spear in his hand, Roaming Dragon raged about angrily, “That b.a.s.t.a.r.d Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand is being too much! Comrades, we only have one mission today and that is to kill Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand! We"ll do it even if we have to flip the entire Windmill Forest upside down! I"ve already summoned four more subguilds here! They will completely secure the Windmill Forest and protect all the Agave!”
Inconstant said in a soft voice, “Guild leader, Lu Chen seems to have picked the area clean of Agave plants. There isn"t even one-third of them left…”
The muscles on Roaming Dragon"s face spasmed as he roared, “f.u.c.k Lu Chen"s granddaddy!”
I grinned when I heard those words. My granddaddy? Too bad, I only had a Third Uncle and he was currently happily harvesting his watermelons...
……
I fished out a return scroll. I had already gathered more than enough Agave for my needs, so I didn"t need to continue playing with Mad Dragon any further. After all, killing players didn"t earn me any experience points.
Wooos.h.!.+
I returned to Sky City and I could see Lu Buyi and Freezing Point recruiting people in the distance. I checked on them and saw that the eighth subguild had swelled to more than four thousand eight hundred people. They were just about filled up.
I walked over to the my warehouse and sent a message to Lu Buyi: “Buyi, come over to the warehouse manager at the eastern gate plaza. I have something for you…”
“Oh?”
Lu Buyi soon appeared. He ran towards me and grinned, “Guild leader Lu Chen, what can I do for you?”
I took out a fan from my warehouse and tossed it to him. “There, this is the weapon that will help you become a top-tier tactician. Consider this a welcoming gift for joining our guild!”
Lu Buyi caught the flaming fan. When he saw the fan"s stats, he froze on the spot, nearly dropping the fan from his nerveless fingers. His entire body shuddered as emotions danced wildly in his heart.
Burning Fan (Earth-grade, Outstanding★★★★★): 750~1020 Attack, Intelligence +150, Stamina +145, Tactics +50. Pa.s.sives: Increases user"s stratagem"s effectiveness by 25%, increases user"s max HP by 30%. Outstanding Property: Strategy, the corresponding stratagem"s Attack boost is increased by an additional 15%. Level Requirement: 130.
……
“Guild leader, this… this present is way too expensive, isn"t it?” Lu Buyi said as he audibly gulped. “I… I"m only an insignificant grunt who just joined the guild, but you"re actually giving a 5-star Outstanding Earth-grade weapon to me!? This is…”
I patted his shoulder as I laughed. “I"ll return your words right back to you! Don"t let other people tell you what you can or cannot do! The ones who failed will always tell you that you will fail as well. But you should always ignore these people and chase your dreams! It was the same for me as well. Many people told me that my dreams would only ever be dreams. But I used my actions to tell them that I could do the things that they could never even dream of. Right now, it"s your turn to prove it to yourself!”