457 Gift From the Heavens

“We’ve already lost contact with Lone Wolf for two whole days. Three Alliances are becoming more and more arrogant, to the point where they even created a Xuanyuan Alliance everywhere. If this goes on, we’ll be at a disadvantage.”

“Exactly, the surrounding training ground of City of Light, from those as low as Level 20 to those as high as Level 50, are all being occupied by people of the Xuanyuan Alliance. Smaller guilds that fought back were either coerced or bribed. Now, the atmosphere in the City of Light is foul and terrible. Many players either have to join the Xuanyuan Alliance to level up or leave the City of Light for other cities.”

“It’s a good thing for us that they are so arrogant. Many of the solo players will come and join Brotherhood’s camp now…”

“I’ve received news that Baili Xuanyuan has bought a property. He is preparing to hold an auction house!”

There were four people in a discussion in Sakura’s Bar. Among them, there was Baili Changcheng, Heaven Plume, and Ghost Eyes. Under Lin Jie’s suggestions before he left, the other members of Savage Blade were leveling up in various maps. They were not participating in any fights until Lin Jie’s return. During that period, everything was under the control of the Steel Allies’ few leaders.

In the private room, stood a tall figure. He was donned in a robe and was equipped with an ice wand. However, he was wearing a Wolf Head Helmet. This was the special tool of Codename Lone Wolf! The man under it was Dumb Fox! The fights in the City of Light were pretty intense these few days. He was the one giving all the commands in the name of Codename Lone Wolf.

At that moment, the four people in the room were all frowning. A light flashed across Baili Changcheng’s eyes as he gritted his teeth. He spurted out, “I heard that Baili Xuanyuan has already gathered a large amount of cash. He’s bought off many guilds and is preparing to seize the city! Before that, he would have to first go through the Brotherhood and us!”

“Currently, wild battles are breaking out everywhere. You can only give out commands while impersonating Lone Wolf and are unable to go out and fight personally. The members of Savage Blade are also training by themselves. Meanwhile, the other members of the Brotherhood are all itching to fight but were stopped by us. Now, many of them are quitting out of worry. We can’t go on like this.”

Dumb Fox shook his head and said, “That’s not a problem. Currently, our organization is not very united. If everyone joins the Brotherhood while it is powerful and leaves when there is a crisis, it would only make a joke out of our organization. We should take this opportunity to cleanse the Brotherhood. It’s not necessarily a bad thing for Lone Wolf and us. But Baili Xuanyuan…”

“Baili Xuanyuan’s motives have been revealed!” Ghost Eyes rolled his eyes. “His strength now far exceeds normal players, and nobody can control him. He was just like Lone Wolf back then, displaying his abilities without any restraint and attracting everybody’s attention. He placed his Xuanyuan Alliance in everybody’s sight now.”

Heaven Plume gave a dry cough, and said, “Now that fellow has set up the Xuanyuan Alliance, specifically to gather those second-rate guilds, solo players, and people who bully other players. There’s no doubt that he’s trying to get his claws on all the remaining players in the City of Light, before taking over the city! Our men are getting killed even as they try to level up, really… I’m so pissed.”

It turned out that while Lin Jie was away, Baili Xuanyuan, who was rapidly increasing his power, had formulated a plan: he needed a lot of reputation in order to develop the Baili family business, and the best way to do so was to take over the City of Light while building a large army! As such, he created the Xuanyuan Alliance, which operated the same way as the Brotherhood. He would not reject anyone who was willing to join!

The people in the Xuanyuan Alliance cleared the training grounds from morning until night. If one were not a member of the Xuanyuan Alliance, they would either scram or die! Of course, one could choose to join them and bully others. As such, large numbers of players had joined them and found a twisted form of entertainment. This organization was increasing rapidly!

However, the overbearing ways of the Xuanyuan Alliance also received a lot of backlash. But those who went against them were few and weak. After getting killed a few times, they changed their ground and went to train in other cities. Only when they needed to buy items would they return to the City of Light, to Sky Provisions Shop, and Central Auction House. There were a few players who had joined the Steel Allies and Brotherhood, hoping to fight against the Xuanyuan Alliance together.

The stronger Baili Xuanyuan’s power grew, the more the Brotherhood was suppressed. At the start, the Brotherhood would immediately fight back when there was a fight. With a call, thousands of Brotherhood members would come rushing to fight!

At times like this, Lone Wolf should have appeared and massacred everybody, suppressing the Xuanyuan Alliance’s forces and establishing the glorious image of Brotherhood’s leader. However, “Lone Wolf” only gave out commands, asking for his followers to “hold back” for now and that Brotherhood would give them all an explanation later on.

This made nearly 30% of the players quit the organization. After all, they had joined in hopes of seeking shelter and protection. Now that being in the Brotherhood put a target on their backs, they left immediately.

There were some members who believed that the Brotherhood would triumph and insisted on staying. However, they put on Hermit Helmets and hid their identities to prevent themselves from getting attacked.

Of course, there were a few who refused to wear Hermit Helmets. Even if they were killed the moment they went into the wild, they swore to fight for the Brotherhood until the very end.

“Enough! Baili Xuanyuan is trying to poach our members and is suppressing our Brotherhood. Now, he is even opening an auction house to monopolize the economy, we can’t let him continue!” Baili Changcheng stood up and yelled, “Gather all those loyal solo players to us. Baili Xuanyuan has insider info, but so do I! I know a wasteland map that is right at the junction of the Tribe of Darkness. It is a good place to level up, we’ll bring them all there. During this time, my Supreme Tribe will attract all of their attacks! I will also use the power within my family to destroy Baili Xuanyuan.”

After he was done, Baili Changcheng left.

Six hours later, Sunken Town, which was under Baili Xuanyuan, was attacked. Half of the NPC guards were killed, and the buildings were burned to the ground by Fire Mages. Their agriculture fields were even trampled over and destroyed! Following that, Skynet Town, Wooden Eagle Town, and Famila Town were attacked too! After investigation, it was revealed that these were all done by a guild called Supreme Tribe.

“Hehe, it’s really my good nephew.” Baili Xuanyuan laughed coldly as he smashed a bottle of expensive wine onto the floor. “If that’s the case, I’ll waste some effort and give you a good lesson. Oh, your father is so useless that I’ll have to be the one doing such things… How worthless!”

………

Munjo Underground City.

After a short rest and some exercise, Lin Jie went back online and continued to tirelessly farm monsters to level up! He had been exploring the Munjo Underground City for quite a few days now.

During this time, he had killed over 200 Silver Undead Ogre Mini-Bosses. He was even lucky to have encountered a Gold Undead Boss. Presently, Lin Jie’s experience bar was close to getting full, and he was reaching Level 46 soon!

On top of that, the drop-rate in the Munjo Underground City was just too amazing! Excluding Gold weapons, there were over 60 Enhanced Skill Books alone! He was not just getting them through drops, they were practically spawning for him! He had also collected 578 fragments of Wind Rider Sword Saint’s Training Handbook. He was halfway to collecting all the required fragments!

Munjo Underground City was extremely vast. With Lin Jie’s farming speed, it would take him up to 10 days to clear all monsters! Also, since the monsters here were all Silver Mini-Bosses, it should take them around half a month to respawn. As such, there was no need to worry about them appearing again.

Originally, he wanted to clear the entire map in one go. However, when he logged in to the forum the day before, he was shocked to find out that Baili Changcheng’s Supreme Tribe had launched an attack against Baili Xuanyuan’s newly created Xuanyuan Alliance!

Baili Xuanyuan had naturally won with his overwhelming manpower. However, Baili Changcheng had put everything on the line to attack their towns when Xuanyuan Alliance let down their guards, forcing them to split their manpower. Although Supreme Tribe suffered a huge loss, they had caused enough trouble to Baili Xuanyuan as well!

Why would Baili Changcheng do this? He must have had no other choice! With that, Lin Jie was anxious. The situation outside seemed bad, so he must quickly speed up!

In front of him, there was a huge palace… in ruins. It was made of gold and diamonds, which were symbols of luxury in the human world. With “gold in every corner”, even if it had turned into ruins, the place looked extravagant.

The second and third keys were there! It was indicated on the map.

As he entered the palace, Lin Jie was surprised to find out that there were no monsters in this map since the floor was covered in corpses! The corpses of the Ogres on the ground were all missing their heads. There were teeth marks on their necks with dried bloodstains, as if their heads were bitten off by some monster.

Undead Ogres may have ruined bodies, but they all had a head. Without a head, these corpses naturally could not become Undead. However… he could use Corpse-Search on them! He could pick up battle drops! Lin Jie felt as if he was rewarded by the Gods.

—’You received [Luxurious Diamond Watch].’

—’You received [Diamond and Gold Necklace].’

—’You received [Ruby Bracelet].’

…

All these accessories might not be equipment, but they were worth a lot of money! NPCs in antic shops loved to collect such accessories. For example, that diamond watch, which was crafted exquisitely and made with luxurious materials, was worth 5 gold coins! However, the bad thing about antics was that they each took up one box of inventory each!

Lin Jie’s Space Package was filled with skill books, and his bag was full of food. After thinking for a long time, he decided to forgo all these accessories.

“Money will come and go, Amitabha[1]!” Lin Jie consoled himself as he forced himself to rush ahead without turning back.

Anyone could tell that his heart was bleeding! “Those things are all money. If it weren’t because I really have no space left, I would never let go of those precious treasures even if I died.”

Lin Jie continued to explore and found an entrance that was similar to the underground room. The moment he entered, he scanned the surroundings to see if the Boss-spawning items were around! This place held two keys, which also meant that there could be two Bosses here!

However, Lin Jie was dumbfounded.

In front of him was an old Ogre. From its extravagant clothing, he could tell that this was a royal Ogre, possibly the queen of the Ogres? But this Ogre had no head.

Identify!

[Ogre Queen Gojaki] (Corpse)!

Lin Jie went ahead to touch it skeptically.

Ding~

—’You received Key Fragment (Two).’

—’You received Key Fragment (Three).’

—’You received [Queen’s Scepter] (Dark Gold Fragment).’

“This…” Lin Jie was stunned. What was going on? Could those be gifts from the Heavens?

[1] A celestial buddha, also said by Buddhists as a form of prayer