Chapter 1375: A Matter of Principle

We were currently treading through a lifeless, dark green pine forest. Behind it was a mountain range with steep cliffs that blocked our advance. The only way forward was the 300-meter-wide canyon in between the mountain ranges. Right now, a 7000-man party of Blazing Hot Lips players led by Eyes Like Water herself were passing through it. Stranger of Three Lifetimes was nowhere to be seen.

"Dark Mercenaries. Tsk!"

Eyes Like Water clicked her tongue while eyeing the top of the mountain cliffs. There, around 5000 Iron Cutter Cavalrymen were standing behind a bluff of trees, and Little Piglet himself was standing on a cliff’s edge with a sinister smile on his face. It was clear that they were thinking about attacking Blazing Hot Lips. The players of the outer lands were basically robbers. The main source of their equipment and materials weren’t mobs, but players, and their lifestyle was to fuel war with more war. While the 7000-man Blazing Hot Lips party was elite, they might not be able to stop Little Piglet without Stranger of Three Lifetimes.

I immediately sent Eyes Like Water a message: "Beauty Eyes, I and a 10000-man party are just a couple hundred meters behind you. If anything happens, we’ll be able to reinforce you immediately, so don’t worry about Little Piglet and just pass through the canyon!"

A sweet smile crossed Eyes Like Water’s lips when she saw the message: She then ordered loudly, "Stop dilly-dallying and march quickly! There’s an entire map on the other side of the canyon for us to grind yet!"

On the hill, Little Piglet had noticed us as well. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, but in the end he didn’t say anything.

……

We paid Dark Mercenaries no heed and continued cutting down the zombies, skeletal soldiers blocking our way and advancing at our own pace. From our location, we could barely see Purgatory Mad Dragon’s party grinding about 2000 meters away from us.

Rustle rustle...

Like a beautiful elf of midnight, Beiming Xue slinked out from between the darkened bushes and shot me a beautiful smile. "I’m done scouting, big bro. That Purgatory Mad Dragon party is about 37k players strong, and they are led by Iron Pardon. Unfortunately, his troops are all second-rate. Ray of Sunshine, Roaming Dragon, Pillar of the Nation and more are grinding somewhere else, so…"

I declared, "So Iron Pardon and his buddies are done for!"

"That’s right! Also…" Beiming Xue pointed in another direction. "I saw more Dark Mercenaries players pouring in from the other side of the mountain range where the outer lands lie. Little Piglet is most likely going to commit his robbery here…"

I gnashed my teeth together before replying, "Just ignore him and continue forward. We won’t provoke Dark Mercenaries unless they provoke us first."

"Mn!"

……

On the hill, riding atop the Ink Qilin and wielding a powerful sword, a smiling Little Piglet commented while observing the ground, "What a party we have here! I see Lu Chen, Heaven’s Rain and Beiming Xue. The map isn’t huge, but so many first-rate players are here. What do you think of this, Amber Pupil?"

Beside him, Amber Pupil declared haughtily, "Brother Piglet, it doesn’t look like Lu Chen’s brought a lot of men with him. Once our 15k Iron Cutter Cavalrymen have all arrived, we’ll work together with our mages and archers to eliminate their 10000-man party. The real question is, what should we do to kill Lu Chen?"

Little Piglet sneered, "Kill Lu Chen? What are you on about? He has the Resurrection Art, he can’t be killed." [1]

"Don’t worry!" Amber Pupil’s grin widened. "I’ve read the map details beforehand, and I can confirm that all revival skills and card effects such as the Resurrection Art, Immortality Spell, Prophecy of Resurrection, Undying Berserker Card and more won’t work in the Chaotic Regions. This means that even Lu Chen must drop equipment and revive in his main city if he dies here. This is a great opportunity to get the Chill of the Nine Provinces and Cyan Dragon Shield to drop, hehe…"

However, Little Piglet said in a harsh tone, "We are NOT targeting Lu Chen. I’ve told you many times that our enemy is Purgatory Mad Dragon, not Ancient Sword. When Dark Mercenaries was in your hands, you had used it to take revenge against the China server. But in my hands? It will only be used to take revenge against Purgatory Mad Dragon. I am not a dog of the Northern Alliance. If you still cannot get your priorities straight, you may fuck off from Dark Mercenaries right now. The entire main guild is made of my men now anyway!"

"..."

Amber Pupil was silenced, but there was no hiding the hatred in his eyes.

A while later, Little Piglet unsheathed his weapon and growled, "Alright, it’s time! The moment Purgatory Mad Dragon’s players enter the rocky region, we’ll charge down the hill and tear them to pieces! Take revenge for me and your sister-in-law!"

One of the former Purgatory Mad Dragon players who had followed Little Piglet to the outer lands asked, "Speaking of sister-in-law, she hasn’t shown up in a while. Is she okay, boss?"

Little Piglet’s hatred deepened. "It’s nothing. She’s not feeling too well is all. We fuck up Pugatory Mad Dragon, and maybe she’ll feel better!"

"Yeah!"

……

At the foot of the mountain, Iron Pardon and his players entered a rocky canyon while having no idea about the metaphorical guillotine that was suspended right above their necks. It wasn’t until the stones on the ground started shaking unnaturally, that Iron Pardon looked up and finally realized the danger, "Shit, it’s Dark Mercenaries! Form up and prepare to receive their charge!"

However, it was already too late. On average, the Iron Cutter Cavalry were elite Level 220 cavalrymen, and they even had a charge boost because they were galloping down a slope. They easily shredded Purgatory Mad Dragon’s formation into pieces. At the forefront of the cavalry charge, Little Piglet transformed and imbued his sword with Great Conqueror’s splash effect. He unleashed Ultimate Strength Break + Ice Ray combo into the enemy before following up with a Freezing Purgatory. Finally, his Ink Qilin let out a roar and engulfed everything in a jet of flames. It wasn’t long before everyone except Little Piglet’s allies were left standing around him.

"Fuck!"

Iron Pardon was furious, but there was nothing he could do to change this situation or stop Little Piglet. He could only beat an organized retreat while ordering, "Everyone who revived should form up at the city entrance first before making their way back over. Archers, use Spiraling Arrow Blades… I mean Mountain Stagger Arrows to dismount the enemy. Without their Iron Cutter Warhorse, these chumps are just a bunch of trash…"

Iron Pardon was clearly panicking. Forget that they were utterly inferior to Little Piglet’s army in the first place, Dark Mercenaries was fueled by pure hatred as well. Although Iron Pardon’s army outnumbered Little Piglet’s 7 to 1, they still lost like never before.

More and more bodies hit the ground until Purgatory Mad Dragon’s defeat became absolutely irreversible.

……

"Are… are we really going to just watch them be slaughtered and do nothing?" It was so bad that Moonlight Stone was starting to sympathize with Purgatory Mad Dragon.

Tiger Leopard Knight consoled her, "You don’t need to pity them, sister. It’s what they deserve."

I said, "Yeah, we are not interfering in Little Piglet and Purgatory Mad Dragon’s business. Purgatory Mad Dragon absolutely brought it upon themselves. Personally, I support Little Piglet’s vengeance all the way."

Heaven’s Rain blinked at me and said, "You must know something. Tell us!"

Me: "I will not talk about it."

"..."

……

It was an almost amusing scene from a bird’s eye point of view. On one side of the entrance, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls were grinding experience and loot happily. On the other, Purgatory Mad Dragon was being massacred like dogs. It was what I imagined the contrast between heaven and hell was like.

It took only less than an hour for Dark Mercenaries to turn all 37k Purgatory Mad Dragon players into dead bodies, equipment, potions, cards and more loot. After they were done looting the battlefield, Little Piglet raised his sword and ordered, "Alright, time to return to the hills and wait for the rest of our brothers and sisters to join us. We can then begin our next hunt. Today, we aren’t letting a single Purgatory Mad Dragon player past this canyon."

Just a short while later, a new troop of cavalrymen led by a brawny man carrying a broadsword. He was none other than Dominating Heaven Blade of Gods of Destruction. The guild leader glanced back and forth between us and the despawning bodies on the ground and clicked his tongue. "Heavens, what the hell happened here?"

Dominating Knight God said, "Purgatory Mad Dragon’s 10000-man parties got wrecked by Little Piglet and the Dark Mercenaries…"

"Fuck!"

Dominating Heaven Blade shot a glance at the concealed Dark Mercenaries on the mountains before shuddering. "Tell our mages, priests, archers and other parties to catch up to our frontline as soon as they can. We’re going to pass through the canyon in the shortest time possible, and we’re going to avoid clashing against Dark Mercenaries. We’re here for the experience and loot, not to hunt down the outer-land players. There is also no need to offend Little Piglet. That one’s for Ray of Sunshine to do!"

……

However, Dominating Heaven Blade might not want to clash against Dark Mercenaries, but Dark Mercenaries very much wanted to clash against him. On the hills, Amber Pupils licked his lips with greed and said, "Guild leader, we can raid Dominating Heaven Blade, right? He’s screwed with us plenty of times, and his main force hasn’t yet caught up to him. Let’s attack him and get him to drop an equipment or two. The old man isn’t all that skilled, but he has an entire set of top-tier Immortal-grade equipment. It’s such a waste!"

Little Piglet replied, "Purgatory Mad Dragon is our only prey."

"But Purgatory Mad Dragon isn’t here right now. You don’t seriously expect us to do nothing in the meantime, do you?" Amber Pupil retorted.

A couple of Dark Mercenaries players agreed with his reasoning. "Yeah, we all gotta eat, man. Where are we going to grind some equipment if we don’t kill Gods of Destruction? We can’t wait here and do nothing while everyone else is earning contribution points, man. You gotta take responsibility for our living expenses, man…"

Little Piglet fumed. "Fine, fine! However, we’re returning after we take out Dominating Heaven Blade and his couple thousand players!"

"Yeah!"

……

Battle cries filled the air, and nearly 10000 Iron Cutter Cavalrymen charged down the hills once more.

Dominating Heaven Blade shuddered. "Shit! I was hoping this wouldn’t happen. Form up! It’s too late to run, so we may as well drag as many enemies down with us to the grave as possible!"

……

The activity hadn’t escaped my notice. I immediately reined in my dragon and said, "Halt! Dragonlight Cavalry, follow me to intercept the Iron Cutter Cavalry! Show them the strength of the China server’s best cavalrymen!"

The Dragonlight Cavalry was way faster than the Iron Cutter Cavalry, so they were able to form a shield formation before the Iron Cutter Cavalry were able to hit them.

Little Piglet was galloping at full speed when he noticed us and abruptly skidded to a stop. He then shouted, "What is the meaning of this, Lu Chen? Are you going to stop us from making some money?"

I tossed the Chill of the Nine Provinces on the ground in front of me and declared, "I don’t care what you do to Purgatory Mad Dragon, but you’re not harming any other Chinese player! If you must wipe out Gods of Destruction, then you’ll have to step over our bodies first!"

"Fuck!"

Amber Pupil exploded, "Get him!"

1. T/N: this officially makes Little Piglet THE smartest character in the entire novel bar none ☜