Chapter Fifty-Five: The Celestial Guild Withdraws from Dangyang City

On the vast map of Wolf Ridge, only Zhang Shan was there, quietly grinding monsters by himself. This was a level thirty monster zone—not a joke—so others wouldn’t bother coming here for such meager gains at such great effort. At first, he had proceeded with extreme caution, afraid of accidentally attracting too many wolves at once. But as he became familiar with the behavior patterns of the wolves, he grew bolder, sweeping through the area with little restraint. Despite the high density of monsters on the map, as long as he didn’t deliberately aggro clusters, at most only a handful of wolves would charge at him simultaneously. This presented no real threat; before most of them even reached him, he would already have taken down one or two. His panda pet would tank the rest for a while, and quickly they would finish the pack and move on to the next. The process was almost laughably simple.

Zhang Shan could hardly believe it himself—perhaps the game’s design really did leave a margin for survival. When he’d first entered Wolf Ridge and seen the hills crawling with wolves, he had doubted whether he could manage at all, which had made him overly cautious. In retrospect, he realized he’d overthought things; perhaps grinding monsters was always meant to be this straightforward—heh.

With the joy of monster grinding restored, Zhang Shan estimated his current leveling speed. The wolves yielded high experience—after all, these were level thirty monsters, leagues beyond the low teens he’d fought before. Each wolf granted over 260 experience points, and he could defeat about fifteen per minute. In one hour, that was over two hundred thousand experience. He needed just over five hundred thousand more to reach level twenty-one.

He had initially thought he’d be up grinding late into the night, but it now seemed he could reach his goal ahead of schedule. It was only half past nine; he should be able to level up before midnight.

He checked the rankings—the second place was still held by the lone wolf player named Heart Follows My Will. According to the forums, Heart Follows My Will had also chosen the Chu kingdom, but was not in Dangyang City. Someone had reportedly seen him in Yingtian City, which was situated in the eastern part of Chu, a region known in ancient times as the Wu-Yue area. In today’s terms, that would correspond roughly to the regions of Wu and Yue. The area boasted many wealthy players and quite a few top-tier experts, though they rarely formed large guilds. Thus, none of the current top ten guilds were led by players from that region. Most played as lone wolves or in small groups, enjoying the freedom of the game.

With wealth as power in this world, even without strong organizational structures, no one dared underestimate them. Zhang Shan guessed that Heart Follows My Will was likely from Wu-Yue as well, firmly holding the second rank and already at level eighteen. He’d probably hit twenty by tomorrow, leaving the rest far behind—a formidable competitor.

Zhang Shan felt he needed to push himself harder. If he let his guard down and someone overtook him, he’d be more than a little annoyed. As a dedicated grinder wielding a divine weapon, having his level surpassed was simply intolerable.

So, he doubled down on grinding. Pressure breeds motivation, after all. After checking the rankings, Zhang Shan felt a renewed sense of vigor, grinding even faster—though, in truth, that was just his imagination.

While working hard to level up, Zhang Shan kept an eye on the ongoing battle between Gale Blade and the Heaven and Earth Guild. Gale Blade, ever the showman, was constantly reporting the battle’s progress in the guild channel. The Heaven and Earth Guild was no pushover; if anything, they were a bunch of hotheads, unwilling to be trapped in town without a fight. In just over half an hour, they had already clashed twice, both sides suffering losses.

Zhang Shan worried that Gale Blade’s group might be outmatched, so he kept a close eye on the updates, ready to return and support them if necessary. Truth be told, he disliked the Heaven and Earth Guild as well. All he wanted was to grind in peace, yet they’d come after him twice—though he’d profited both times. Still, nobody likes being targeted. Now that his power had increased dramatically, he was itching for payback. A man who never hits back is no true man. Age may have tempered him, but his blood still ran hot.

He’d see how things played out. The leader had assigned Gale Blade to lead the charge and clear the Heaven and Earth Guild out of Dangyang City. If things went south, Zhang Shan would teleport back and slaughter them until they despaired and gave up.

Guild Channel:
Gale Blade: Battle report—Heavenly Dragon Slayer has been felled by my blade.
Battle report—Heavenly Heaven Sword has also been taken down by us.

Hmm? Was Gale Blade exaggerating? Both of their top leaders taken down? It seemed the Heaven and Earth Guild wouldn’t last much longer in Dangyang City. They had arrived with high hopes to challenge the Gale Guild, but the Gale Guild hadn’t even exerted themselves—just sent two hundred people and already beat the fight out of their opponents.

Though Zhang Shan hadn’t participated, he still felt a strange sense of satisfaction.

“Brother Blade, impressive! You’ve already chased them off?” he asked in the guild channel.

“Haha, piece of cake. Just a few chicks—I could’ve wiped them out single-handedly.”

Someone was really laying it on thick.

“Brother Blade, I think the Heaven and Earth Guild members have all run off. Someone saw them respawn and teleport out of Dangyang City.”

“What? Already gone? That can’t be. I always thought they were a bunch of stubborn fools—surely they wouldn’t give up so quickly?”

“It’s true. So many of them teleported away, there’s no way we’re mistaken.”

World Channel:
Heavenly Dragon Slayer: Gale Blade, don’t get cocky. You just wait—I’ll be back to settle the score.
Wandering King: Haha, here comes the gray wolf again—‘I’ll be back!’
War God Li Jing: Why crowd into one city? There are twenty-one cities in total—surely you can find space elsewhere? Now you’ve run off with your tail between your legs—shameful.
“Haha, I’ll be back.”
“I’ll be back +1.”
“I’ll be back +2.”
“I’ll be back +3.”
“I’ll be back +10081.”

Heavenly Dragon Slayer’s single message on the world channel drew a flood of mockery—clearly, they weren’t well liked. Judging by their antics, it was no wonder. Stirring up trouble for others for no reason—sooner or later, they’d run into someone they couldn’t mess with. That’s why the Gale Guild had knocked them out of the top ten.

Just like that Heaven and Earth Little Rabbit—Zhang Shan had been in the middle of channeling a return to town when that scoundrel had come over to attack him. Utterly shameless. Zhang Shan had never provoked them. They were simply a bunch of troublemakers.

Since they’d run off for now, he’d let them go this time—but next chance, he’d make them pay. Zhang Shan liked to think of himself as magnanimous, but even so, it depended on the people. For scoundrels like the Heaven and Earth Guild, if you couldn’t take them on, stay away; if you could, beat them until they couldn’t function. Consider it a way of purifying the game environment.

Hmm, he should ask around which city the Heaven and Earth Guild had gone to. They couldn’t go to cities in other countries for now, since there was no betrayal mechanic yet. But Chu had two other secondary cities—Yingtian and Yunmeng. He’d need to find out their exact destination, so he could pay them a visit when he had the chance.