[TLN: ‘Gui Ya’ was originally translated as ‘Ghost Fang’ by the translator in the other website, but because it’s not a very accurate translation, I leaving it as Gui Ya from now on]

Yun Feng continued to speak, “Without a doubt, the Yan Huang Alliance is the largest, most powerful force in China! However, the most intimidating and terrifying power is The Dark Night- this is something that no one dares to dispute! Normally, if a guild wants to become large and powerful, it must have players from all of the major classes, especially Priests and Shield Guards. However, in The Dark Night, all of the players have the same class.”

“Assassins... and moreover, they all belong to the ‘killer’ branch of the Assassin class.

“The Dark Night doesn’t use various business methods to gather financial resources. They only have one method... assassinations! As long as you pay them enough money, they will assassinate anyone for you... Since The Dark Night emerged, they have never failed at an assassination mission before. Three years ago, what caused all players to firmly remember the name “The Dark Night” was something that happened in the game <>. A player used large amounts of money to hire The Dark Night to kill a super expert, the sixth ranked player in the Heaven Rankings, “The Judge”, who belonged to the Yan Huang Alliance. Three days later, the number 6 player on the Heaven Rankings had been assassinated by The Dark Night. However, that wasn’t the end of the story. The Dark Night had been hired to either kill the player until he was LV0, or until he never appeared in <> again. From that day onwards, every time “The Judge” appeared, he would always be mercilessly assassinated. Within a month, he had been killed twelve times, and never appeared in the game again. Because of this, the Yan Huang Alliance tried to retaliate against The Dark Night. However, to this date, even though the Yan Huang Alliance used various methods, they were never even able to catch a shadow of The Dark Night. Although they tried to trap The Dark Night many times, they failed on every occasion. Not only does The Dark Night possess incredible assassination power, but their skills in detection, investigation and anti-investigation are also top-notch.”

“From then onwards, The Dark Night became an existence feared by all players. To be honest, if it was a direct battle, they might not even be able to beat a small guild. However, they never battle in plain sight. With their few thousand players, they have been called the ‘Demons in the Darkness’. The guildmaster... the one called Shinigami, is ranked second on the Heaven Rankings, and is more powerful than the strongest Heavenly King of the Skyfall Dynasty. He’s not even very inferior to the Sword Emperor. Even if the Sword Emperor can beat the Shinigami in a direct battle, if the Shinigami wanted to assassinate the Sword Emperor, no one would be able to predict the outcome.”

After remembering all the information that Yun Feng had spewed out, Ling Chen asked, “Tell me about the top 3 players on the Heaven Rankings.”

Ling Chen’s interest in the top three players in the Heaven Rankings, as opposed to the entire Heaven Rankings, let alone the entire Earth Rankings, meant that he only took the top three seriously. Yun Feng cracked a smile, and start speaking, “Heh heh, the top 3 players on the Heaven Rankings are all monsters that every player knows about. Hmm... the top ranked “Sword Emperor” is called Feng Xie Yu, which is also his IGN. There has never been anyone who has dared to take this IGN. Since he was little, the Sword Emperor grew up in the Long family. Perhaps the only people who know about his background are the Long family. The Sword Emperor’s might came from sword skills which can be brought into the virtual world. Since the emergence of the Sword Emperor, he has never lost to anyone in China. The Sword Emperor was the General of the Yan Huang Alliance, and his primary duty was to protect Long Tian Yun.

“The second ranked on the Heaven Rankings- Gui Ya, also called the “Shinigami”. The name Gui Ya’s meaning is probably that ‘the minions of a demon can easily take any life in the darkness’ [TLN: Gui (鬼) is a shortened form of ‘魔鬼’ which means ‘demon’. Ya(牙) is a shortened form of ‘爪牙’, which literally means ‘claws and teeth/fangs’, but the meaning here is ‘minion’]. The Sword Emperor’s impression is one of power and indomitability, while the Shinigami’s is one of terror... if it were up to me, I would rather meet the Sword Emperor.”

“The third ranked player on the Heaven Rankings is Skyfall, also called the “Apocalypse Judge”. He is the heir of the Nangong family, China’s strongest ‘special ability family’, and has always chosen the class Summoner. Being the descendant of a ‘special ability family’, he possesses extraordinary spiritual force. Thus, he has an overwhelming advantage in the virtual world. As a Summoner, he can summon countless more Summoned Beasts than other Summoners at the same level. The power and grade of the Summoned Beasts are much higher as well. He is extremely powerful, especially in the late game. Out of all of the players in the Heaven Rankings, he is the strongest in group battles. If he is given enough time, he can summon enough Summoned Beasts to wipe out a large army.”

After rambling for a while, Yun Feng became slightly thirsty. What he had just said was all common knowledge, only someone like Ling Chen who had not even gone near the virtual world in the past few years would not know these things. After taking a deep breath, Yun Feng continued, “Ling Tian, I’ve never doubted your strength, but when you’re going against these three people, you must be careful. This especially goes for the Sword Emperor and Shinigami. Also... even if a single player is extremely strong, in the end they are still unable to face a large army by themselves. Thus, Heart’s Dream needs to keep low-key, otherwise if you arouse the attention of Long Tian Yun, there will be no hope left.”

Yun Feng’s fear of Long Tian Yun was evidently revealed through his mental state and speech when talking about him. Even though he was not a cowardly or overly cautious person, Long Tian Yun was simply too monstrous. As for what Yun Feng had just said, Ling Chen did not comment, and sat there for a while in deep contemplation.

“Alright, alright! Let’s not talk about these boring things anymore! We just got a bunch of powerful equips and big sister Meng Xin just got a new class. We should go out and bully some monsters to level up! We need to rush to LV15 so Su Su and I can use our Gold equips and become even stronger!!” After listening to Yun Feng ramble for a while, Xiao Qi became incredibly bored and could not take it anymore.

She pulled Su’Er up, and energetically yelled, “Let’s go, let’s go! If there’s anything else to discuss, we’ll talk about it on the way. We can even talk about it while wrecking some monsters. It’s so boring here! Heh... big brother Ling Tian is so strong. If you help us level up, I’m sure it’ll be very fast!”

“Alright.” Ling Chen quickly agreed, and stood up with Xiao Qi.

“Yay! Let’s go! So this will be our first guild outing... off we go!”

Going along with Xiao Qi’s demands, the first guild outing was decided. Xiao Qi pulled Su’Er and left first, impatiently wanting to quickly reach LV15 in order to equip the Gold weapons Ling Chen had given them. Yun Feng scratched his head, and embarrassedly said, “Err, if there’s nothing else, I’ll be going now, There’s some things for me to take care of, and if my father saw me with Meng Xin, then... ai.”

“Big brother, you go first. You don’t need to worry about us here.” Yun Meng Xin said in a gentle voice.

“En.” Yun Feng nodded, “Then I’ll be going now. Ling Tian, please take care of my little sister. I leave her and the bet to you. No matter what the outcome is, to have been able to meet you, I’m already satisfied.”

Afterwards, Yun Feng quickly left. Ling Chen and Yun Meng Xin walked together, following Xiao Qi and Su’Er.

“Your big brother is the guildmaster of the ‘Disillusion Alliance’ right?” Ling Chen asked as he walked.

Yun Meng Xin did not try to hide anything from Ling Chen, and slightly nodded her head, “The Disillusion Alliance was founded by the Yun family, and is a subsidiary branch of the Yan Huang Alliance. Currently my big brother is the guildmaster. It’s not exactly a large guild, but it’s not small either.”

Also a subsidiary branch of the Yan Huang Alliance... The Yan Huang Alliance’s sphere of influence was simply unbelievable. With this sort of power, it pretty much controlled the virtual world in China.

Ling Chen turned his head, and looked at Yun Meng Xin. In his line of sight appeared a pair of beautiful eyes, but they were partially obscured by the veil. Ling Chen could not refrain himself from saying, “Beauty is a woman’s wealth; the thing she desires most... but too much beauty can instead lead to tragedy.”

Yun Meng Xin suddenly stopped walking. Her beautiful eyes held a hint of melancholy as she looked at the two girls in front of her holding hands, one bubbly and energetic, the other quiet and shy. Her lips quivered, and said with a calm yet complicated tone, “Ling Tian, since I was young, I’ve never easily trusted anyone... however, from the first time I met you, I felt that you were a completely trustworthy person. Maybe it’s the charm and charisma that you have... so can you tell me, what should I do to avoid this ‘tragedy’?”

“The answer is cruel one, do you still want to hear it?” Ling Chen calmly said, continuing to look forwards.

Yun Meng Xin: “......”

“You and Yun Feng both said that whatever Long Tian Yun wanted, it would be his sooner or later, as well as that he would do anything to achieve his goals. In that case, let’s say you really won the bet with your father. Even if he honoured his promise and did not force you to marry him, would Long Tian Yun just accept that?” Ling Chen said emotionlessly.

Yun Meng Xin’s head slightly drooped and said with a low voice, “This answer is indeed quite cruel.”

“Meng Xin, you’re a very smart girl. I’m sure you’ve already thought of these things, but you’ve always just subconsciously rejected it. However, despite knowing what the situation is like, you still choose to struggle......”

“Smart?” Yun Meng Xin shook her head, “Smart women usually can’t find happiness... because the smarter a woman is, the harder it is for her to find a man who she truly admires and respects. From the age of fifteen, I had always wished that I was just an ordinary girl...”

Ling Chen stopped walking, and looked at Yun Meng Xin. From the first time he had met her, she had displayed the temperament of a goddess. However, the Yun Meng Xin in front of him right now revealed a deeply hidden sense of helplessness.

“You’re very lucky, because you met me. In this world, perhaps the only person who can grant you your wish is me.” Standing still, Ling Chen started to muse to himself.

“Growing and expanding quietly without attracting the attention of the Yan Huang Alliance? Ah.....” Ling Chen slightly smiled, his smile full of a confident arrogance, “Before, I was the nightmare of many people. In this world, there isn’t anyone with the power to make me feel fear.”