Another City Siege

The effect of Hymn of the Eternal End finally expired. Time seemed to resume its flow in that instant. Little Nora and Fang Qinghao only felt the scene before their eyes undergo an earth-shattering shift from a second earlier; everything had abruptly changed. "Where's the enemy?" Little Nora blinked, momentarily dazed, before asking. Fang Qinghao was slightly quicker on the uptake. After her initial astonishment, she glanced at Xielina, secretly marveling at how terrifying the skill was. "Huh? Big Brother, I leveled up again!" Little Nora suddenly realized her level had jumped from 43 to 44, her face filled with surprise. Yu Xian had been chuckling, but hearing Little Nora's words, he was startled as well. He hurriedly opened his status window—sure enough, his level had gone from 43 to 44. He was utterly dumbfounded. Leveling up didn't seem all that difficult after all. *** Resurrection Space. Wufentang and Jasmine Bladeflower had spent a tremendous amount of effort before finally finishing off the Armored Swordback Tyrannosaurus and obtaining its core origin. Just as they were about to discuss who should get the origin, a gorilla forged of steel suddenly appeared not far away. Standing nearly nine meters tall, the gorilla had an entire body made of pitch-black steel alloy, its back bristling with dense triangular spikes. The moment it regained consciousness, it let out a deafening roar: "Who?! Who the hell dared ambush me?!" "..." Wufentang and Jasmine Bladeflower looked at each other, both falling into silence. For some reason, this sight gave them an overwhelming, damned sense of déjà vu. *** Several days later. Ximen Wangcai and Situ Xingye finally arrived at Jiangli City. Looking at Jiangli City, which had returned to an unowned state, both felt deeply amazed. Yu Xian was just too good at stirring up trouble; in such a short time, he had actually wiped out the Guoba Legion. In fact, other groups had initially wanted to claim Jiangli City over the past few days, but Yu Xian simply had Xielina loose a single, modest arrow. After that, there was no 'after that'—everyone promptly transformed into polite, courteous, accommodating folks. The two entered through the city gates and found that Jiangli City had far more shops, as well as a significantly larger number of NPCs. There were even recreational NPCs one could marry. Quite a few class users lingered in Jiangli City precisely because of these NPCs, having no intention of moving on to the next city even after reaching Level 70. "The financial strain of this city is far lighter than Fukang City's. It might even turn a profit," Situ Xingye analyzed as he looked around, speaking to Ximen Wangcai beside him. As long as the Sparkle Troupe took control of this city, their troupe could expand into a legion and recruit more class users. After all, with two cities to govern, they could steadily funnel talent upward depending on each class user's level. Speaking of levels, however, Ximen Wangcai and Situ Xingye felt rather helpless. The main issue was that Yu Xian leveled up far too fast—in the blink of an eye, he was already Level 44. The two of them had ground day and night, and in the end, it was only with the combined help of every member of the Sparkle Troupe that they managed to reach Level 40. Fukang City had an item called an experience crystal, which could store the experience gained from killing monsters. Under normal circumstances, however, no class user would willingly sacrifice their own gains for someone else. This time, to claim Jiangli City as quickly as possible, the Sparkle Troupe had truly gone all out. Every member carried experience crystals while farming monsters, ultimately brute-forcing Ximen Wangcai and Situ Xingye up to Level 40. As they talked, they arrived outside a teahouse. Since it had not opened yet, the two stood by the entrance, waiting. "Yo, you're finally here." Ten minutes later, right at the appointed time, Yu Xian strolled leisurely up to the teahouse. Seeing Ximen Wangcai and Situ Xingye standing at the door, he greeted them with a smile. "Troupe Leader!" Ximen Wangcai and Situ Xingye were noticeably much more respectful toward Yu Xian. After all, this was a game-breaking anomaly who had single-handedly annihilated an entire legion. "Come on, let's head inside and talk over tea," Yu Xian said with a nod and a smile, leading the way into the teahouse. Once the NPC server brought out their tea, Yu Xian took a sip. Looking at Ximen Wangcai and Situ Xingye sitting stiffly upright before him, he said with a beaming smile, "Don't be so tense. You know I don't really care about power or anything like that. I'm mainly doing this for fun. After all, if you play a game without competing for dominance, half the fun is lost, right?" "Then, Troupe Leader, our mission this time is...?" Ximen Wangcai asked. Yu Xian smiled. "I plan to claim Jiangli City next. The main reason I called you two over is to recruit people. Otherwise, once I take over Jiangli City, am I supposed to let skeleton soldiers manage the whole place?" "What about the monster siege?" Situ Xingye asked in surprise. Yu Xian nodded. "Just as you're thinking. I'll take care of the monster siege. What you need to do is make sure Jiangli City doesn't fall into chaos once it lands in our Sparkle Troupe's hands." "Then... roughly when does the monster siege begin?" Ximen Wangcai asked. Flashing a grin, Yu Xian replied, "This afternoon." "Damn it! I'm going to recruit new members right now!" Ximen Wangcai said, jumping up immediately. Situ Xingye sighed as well. Sure enough, he was born to work himself to the bone—he had just rushed all the way here, only to have to hustle for his life straight away. Resigned, he said, "Leader, next time, you really have to let us know in advance so we have at least a little time to prepare. I'll get to work too." From start to finish, neither of them had even considered the possibility that Yu Xian might fail to defend the city. After all, even the Guoba Legion was gone; a mere monster siege was clearly no big deal to him. "There's no need to rush off this very second," Yu Xian said helplessly, watching them hurry out to recruit people. He took a few more sips of tea, finding no real flavor in it. In the end, he stood up and muttered to himself, "Yep, I'm definitely better suited to cola. And here I thought Wangcai and the others would enjoy tea. Wasted effort." In truth, the main reason he was in such a rush to trigger the monster siege was simply that he wanted to level up. Over the past few days, Xielina had replenished another wave of skeleton soldiers, yielding several heroic spirits in the process, while the Chaos Evil Beast had brought a large horde of monsters under control via radiation. Yet during their excursions, they never encountered any decent monsters anymore. Clearly, the two relatively strong boss monsters near Jiangli City had already met a tragic end at his hands. If he wanted to level up quickly now, he could only travel farther to hunt for boss-tier monsters—or have boss-tier monsters come to him. As a renowned loafer and reputable freeloader across the myriad realms, Yu Xian naturally chose the latter: let the boss-tier monsters come to him. The method, of course, was a monster siege. Back when Bolaiye attacked the city, both he and Little Nora had leveled up. This time, Yu Xian hoped the incoming boss monster would be a bit more formidable—ideally pushing him all the way to Level 50 in one go. Leaving the teahouse, Yu Xian returned to the inn where he was staying temporarily. Speaking of which, the headquarters in Fukang City was still under construction, covering an astonishingly massive area. In the future, any class user who joined the Sparkle Troupe in Fukang City would be in luck—free lodging, free food, plus Fortune Gold Coins guaranteed from hunting monsters. Every single one of them would likely become a mini-tycoon. Unfortunately, Yu Xian was leveling up too fast; it was unlikely he would ever return to Fukang City to stay at the Sparkle Troupe's base. He probably wouldn't even get the chance to move into Jiangli City's future base either. Rounding it off, he was purely working as a volunteer laborer for the class users in his troupe.