Zhan Long

Afternoon, south gate of Tian Ling City. Ye Lai led a bunch of Xia Yu Army soldiers to recruit the incoming NPCs. Of course, many of the NPCs who came were Mercenaries, with some being Lumberjacks and Hunters. Most were civilians and only a handful were from the War College. After Owen died, Xia Yu Army lost its advantage and Ye Lai only took over for half a month. Naturally, he could not have done so much in this short time.

……

Lin Wan Er, Dong Cheng Yue, and I were strolling and we took a look. "Ye Lai, how many troops does the Xia Yu Army have now? Are you guys strong enough?"

Ye Lai's face became bitter. "We had five thousand; I've only managed to recruit seven thousand plus so far. Is that enough? D*mn, Jian Feng Han is so lucky; he has fifty thousand right after becoming Purple Spirit Army's General. Fang Ge Que is even luckier with eighty thousand in the Fire Dragon Army!"

I laughed. "Why are you even envying them? Although Jian Feng Han has many people, they are in charge of logistics. As for Fang Ge Que, he has eight Majors and all are players, so it won't be convenient to command. Rumor is one of them; do you think that Rumor will follow instructions?"

Ye Lai replied, "If I were him, I would find a chance to remove him!"

"That is hard. To remove a Major, one must at least be a four-star general and Lochlan must pass it. Do you think Lochlan will allow that? All the Generals in my Royal Army were promoted by Lochlan, so at most I have the power of speech but not overall control."

Ye Lai laughed. "How can I compare to you? You are the emperor's teacher, while I am just a piece of grass..."

"Okay, stop grumbling. I'll speak on your behalf next time so that the Xia Yu Army can be allowed to recruit students from War College."

"..."

……

I headed out of the city and straight toward the Fire Crystal Basin. I brought the girls to tour the camp of the Barbarian Tribe; the moment I showed up, some chiefs of the tribe displayed grateful looks. They were probably happy that I had brought them such a peaceful life, teaching them how to farm and herd. Moreover, they did not need to worry about food and being hunted by the human armies. This is the life they needed. Their reproduction speed here was really quick too and their overall population exceeded six hundred thousand. They would easily provide one hundred to two hundred thousand Barbarian soldiers for the Royal Army.

After which, Li Mu sent a message. Zhan Long's plan was to clear the Ice Plains south of Fire God Mountain; he was asking whether or not we wanted to go. Anyway, we did not have much to do, so I agreed. Let's head to Fan Shu City to repair the equipment and replenish our items.

In the forest south of Fan Shu City, Li Mu, Wang Jian, and the others led the Zhan Long players to wait. There were around five thousand of them, which was more than enough to clear such a map. About two thousand five hundred Furnace God Cavalrymen were among this group, so even if we did bump into enemies, we had nothing to fear.

We passed through the forest; after traveling for thirty more minutes, the environment became cold. Tian Ling City's weather had always been weird. There was frost in the south too, forming a snowland. The Icy Plains was right in front. The frost froze everything and only the needle pine forest in the plains had a bit of green.

I rode my Furnace God War Horse ahead while holding Butterfly in my hands as the rest followed closely behind. The moment I went into a snow veil, I felt like the cold here was no less than Dragon City's and I was about to turn into an ice cube. Snow was dropping down from above. Inside, one could not even hear words clearly.

"D*mn! This place is too cold!" Li Mu shouted while using his palm to cover his eyes.

I tightened my robe. Meanwhile, Lin Wan Er stepped on the snow. "Why are there no monsters?"

Wang Jian explained, "This place is too cold. Players seldom come here. I heard that after the new patch, the monster levels became too high, so those people who dared to come here were insta-killed—"

Before Wang Jian could finish speaking, a sound of ice shifting was heard. A transparent frost beast charged out. It looked like a lion. It hollered and pounced on One Second Hero. One Second Hero raised his shield to block it as he thrust his Zhangba Snake Spear forward. The attack connected well, showing off his skills.

At this time, many more Frost Beasts had appeared. Some were bears while some were wolves. Who knew that they would go all out to attack us right from the get-go? The monsters in this map were very united; did they want to wipe us out instantly?

Unfortunately, they had underestimated us. Although they were mostly level 6 Hybrid Demons, our tanks were Furnace God Cavalry. Facing level 6 Hybrid Demons with our level 170, we of course had nothing to fear at all. Still, to be safe and so that we would not suffer any losses, we brought with us a large number of Healers, too.

……

After an hour, we cleared the monsters at the border and continued to push deeper. Li Mu held the Flame Scorching Sword and shouted, "Spread out and push forward; we must find it!"

I was shocked. "‘It’? What are you referring to?"

Li Mu laughed. "You guess!"

Feeling like I was being kept in the dark, I really wanted to beat him up until he talked. Yue Qing Qian smiled and explained, "Nothing much. Yesterday, Yue Wei Liang and I found a quest certificate, so we know that there's a hidden map here known as Ice Cavern. It is a SSS-grade map, which was why I brought people from Zhan Long to explore. If we could find it, there'd be many gains!"

I felt excited. "Then let's work hard; it's been a long time since we found a large-sized map!"

"En en!"

……

Ice Cavern, without needing to think, was this the place where the water god Gong Gong was buried. Since it was an ancient god, naturally the benefits would not be few. Anyway, we would not take a loss at all.

Everyone was very patient. After three hours of us being in these plains, someone finally shouted in excitement, "Found it, found it!"

I charged over and Lin Wan Er grabbed the chains on my armor. When we arrived, we noticed that dozens of Furnace God Cavalrymen were off their horses and were digging with their weapons. Five meters down and a giant gate appeared. Inscribed on it were numerous ancient runes. One looked and we knew that this map was not simple.

Yue Qing Qian walked over and touched the door. She blinked. "Only five hundred players can enter within twenty-four hours. Anymore and they’ll be teleported back to the main city. What should we do?"

Li Mu replied, "Choose two hundred top Furnace God Cavalry and then dozens from the other jobs. Select our most elites; if not, I am afraid that we won't be able to clear it."

"Okay!"

Soon enough, the members that would enter were selected. They were all elite Zhan Long players. The others continued to level outside. Level 6 Hybrid Demons were quite good for experience and were decent to level with.

……

Creak...

When I pushed the door gate, a cool breeze, which made me shiver, wafted into my face. Lin Wan Er, Li Mu, and I were about to freeze into blocks of ice. D*mn, this place was really cold!

Within was a long icy corridor. The instant that I crossed the gate, a bell rang into my ears to introduce the map—

Ding!

[System notification: You have stepped into a SSS-grade map, Gong Gong Ice Cavern!

[Map introduction: Water God Gong Gong, the ancient god in charge of flood and water, clashed with the Fire God, causing a war to break out. Gong Gong launched an attack first and his generals, Xiang Liu and Fu You, led an army to extinguish the god of flame in the palace of Zhu Rong. Zhu Rong fought back and won. Enraged, Gong Gong smashed the world pillar and caused calamity to descend upon the mortal realm. Nuwa could not bear to see life die because of this, so after she fixed the heavens, she sealed Gong Gong underground. This is Gong Gong Ice Cavern.]

……

"It seems like we're going to meet Gong Gong," Wang Jian teased.

I walked down the steps. "Be careful, this SSS-grade map isn't the same as the ones before. As our level and equipment get better, the monsters will get stronger, too!"

"En!"

Officially entered the map. What the map interface showed was that we were at b1. Another maze-type map!

In the corridors further ahead, we heard ripping sounds that made our hair stand on end.

"What?"

Li Mu charged forward and shouted in terror, "D*mn, so scary!"

A giant serpent with a pair of red eyes was at the center. When it raised its head, I could estimate that it was two meters high and its body was way thicker than a bowl. Level 7 Hybrid Demon, Frost Serpent!