The intense friction between both sides kept escalating. The smell of gunpowder was strong in the air.

Suspiciously, even though several large battles were fought in the Satreen Empire, Angel Corps never launched a fierce retaliation and simply held their ground. The higher-ups of the guilds hadn’t shown their faces for over a month already either. No one, even their own members, knew where Soaring Angel and the others were.

Fallen Angel was making progress on all fronts. As the flames of war spread, they were already preparing to lay siege on a stronghold!

Angel Corps and Fallen Angel were sworn enemies. The two even had opposing names. Their conflict was irreconcilable. With a powerful ally like Fallen Angel by their side, Asskickers United felt a lot less pressure.

Nie Yan received word that Fallen Angel’s seven Soulweavers were planning to make a trip to the surface. Soulweaver was the final class advancement of the Undead Empire. Like the Masters of the Viridian Empire and Satreen Empire, the Soulweavers of the Undead Empire were far stronger than the Silver Wings of the Demon Tribe. There were only 13 Soulweavers in the entire Undead Empire, and seven of them belonged to Fallen Angel. This was quite the achievement.

With Fallen Angel’s seven Soulweavers coming to the surface, Angel Corps already felt a headache coming up.

Nie Yan passed down various orders to the players of Asskickers United. He dispatched some troops to the Satreen Empire to stir up trouble for Angel Corps. Meanwhile, he had those with potential focus on levelling up, running dungeons, and raising their equipment quality. Asskickers United and Angel Corps were fighting a war of attrition. This battle wouldn’t be won in a few days, or even weeks. So, they needed to fight for every little advantage they could get, maintain it, and eat away at the enemy’s where possible.

Nie Yan didn’t want to launch an all out offensive for the time being. After all, the Satreen Empire was Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group’s territory. They had operated there since the game’s release. Their position wouldn’t be easy to shake. As the adage goes, “A strong dragon cannot repress a snake.” If he truly wanted to enter the Satreen Empire, he would have to seriously consider the consequences of losing the war.

Asskickers United and their branch guilds already had 300,000 players roaming around in the Satreen Empire. There was also Heaven Song, which was steadily growing under the leadership of Ronin. Nie Yan would let them slowly whittle away at Angel Corps.

Apart from these matters, nothing else of interest to Nie Yan was happening in the Satreen Empire and Viridian Empire. A month passed by in the blink of an eye.

...

The Viridian Mountain Range, a silhouette flitted across the protruding rocks, making the precipitous mountain wall look like flat ground.

That person was Nie Yan. He’d spent the better part of a month searching here for clues. When he met with Jewel Merchant Ofnis in Blaze City, he learned that Ofnis had been robbed by a group of bandits while transporting his goods through the Viridian Mountain Range. He lost everything, including Abak’s Leg Guards of Focus. This was where the quest clues came to an end. Nie Yan felt helpless. He was already 86% of the way to Level 150, but he still hadn’t found any information on the bandits or leg guards.

Level 180 monsters spawned in the Viridian Mountain Range. There were plenty of Elites and Lords too. Even some large flying creatures could be spotted flying through the sky. This was definitely a wild and dangerous region. So, Nie Yan couldn’t mobilize a large force to help him search, but he still recruited about 100 Thieves. They spread out and investigated around.

However, the Viridian Mountain Range was massive, covering the east and south of the Viridian Empire, and they were with few. It wasn’t easy to find clues, especially since the only bit of information they had to go off was that they were searching for a group of bandits.

After the situation in the Viridian Empire settled down, Bladelight and the other Masters felt more comfortable leaving for far-away places. They started clearing some famous bosses, ranging from Level 150 to Level 180. Many were Variant or even Demonified Lords. This was only possible thanks to Drakuru’s Tower Shield. Bladelight could tank these bosses with ease. As they took down more and more Lords, they obtained one phenomenal item after the other. Their collective gear quality rose by quite a few notches.

「Have you found Abak’s Leg Guards of Focus yet? If you still haven’t found it, let’s just go hunt the Lava Titan,」Bladelight said. Nie Yan wanted to acquire the leg guards first before taking on the Lava Titan, but he had already spent a month searching without any luck. The others were starting to get impatient. If it weren’t for a few unexpected things coming up on their end, they would have long killed the Lava Titan. It was about time.

「Alright, I’ll put it off for some other time.」Nie Yan let out a deep sigh. He’d done all he could. But even after searching high and low for so long, he hadn’t found anything. Maybe some new information would pop up later.

「Great! I’ll tell everyone to get ready,」Bladelight said.

Nie Yan was about to leave, when the Thief team sent him a report. Someone had discovered a temple a group of bandits called home. It was located in the northern part of the mountain range at a place called Moradus Peak.

Finally, a lead! Nie Yan’s heart trembled. It perfectly fit the description Ofnis had given him!

Nie Yan hurriedly sent a message to Bladelight. They would have to wait. He would investigate the bandit lair first!

Nie Yan activated Gale Step and dashed off toward Moradus Peak.

Nie Yan’s speed in the mountains was only about a fifth of his normal speed. After running for a good 15 minutes, he finally arrived.

After entering Moradus Peak, Nie Yan met up with the Thieves under him. There were a dozen of them here in total.

“Boss, you’re here!” the Thieves greeted excitedly.

“Did you guys explore the bandit lair yet?” Nie Yan asked.

The Thieves glanced at each other before one stepped up with a bitter smile. “Sorry, Boss. We’re useless. 16 of us have already tried infiltrating that place, but none of us came out alive. We revived in a nearby graveyard.”

“What?” Nie Yan blurted out in surprise. He knew exactly how strong these Thieves were. None of them were to be looked down on. Normally, even if they encountered danger, they could still escape with their lives, to say nothing of all 16 of them dying. “What did you see inside?”

“We didn’t even get past the front entrance. The square outside the temple is guarded by Level 180 Variant Lords. These bandits are made up of different races. We saw humans, elves, orcs, even giants. There were several hundred of them in total. As for what’s inside, we have no idea,” one of the Thieves replied.

Level 180 Variant Lords, all of them. No wonder none of these Thieves came out alive. If the guards to the entrance were already this strong, what would he find inside?

“What kind of temple is this?” Nie Yan asked.

The Thieves shook their heads. “Just a bunch of ruins. When we approached the area, we didn’t even receive a notification.”

Nie Yan asked a few more questions. But since none of them entered the temple, their answers could be summarized with, “I don’t know,” or, “No idea.” It seemed like he wouldn’t gleen any more information from them. He could only go in and take a look himself.

“You guys can go back. Thank you for your help. I’ll reward all of you 10,000 merit points for finding this temple,” Nie Yan said.

“Thank you, boss!” The Thieves were all quite happy. 10,000 merit points was enough for all of them to upgrade their equipment by a notch.

As they were about to leave, one Thief looked like he wanted to say something but was hesitating.

“What is it? Speak,” Nie Yan said.

“When I was sneaking around outside the perimeter of the temple, I managed to peek through a window and saw a library. There was this symbol of an obelisk in there.” The Thief pulled open a virtual screen and drew a strange symbol. It was a round design with what looked like a tree in the center. “I did some research and discovered this is the symbol of the Goddess of Life. I’m guessing this is a temple dedicated to her. According to legend, when the Goddess of Life was killed in the war, her divinity shattered into pieces. This temple was probably abandoned after her death.”

The Thief looked at Nie Yan nervously. Seeing that Nie Yan appeared to be deep in thought, he didn’t dare to bother him.

“What else did you learn from your research?” Nie Yan asked.

“Nothing else. But when I was doing my research, I discovered a certain line, A complete divinity will allow you to sense the power of a god and step through the door of a legendary realm. I’m not really sure what it means or if it’s even related to this temple...” the Thief mumbled into a quiet whisper. He felt extremely nervous in front of a bigshot like Nie Yan.

Nie Yan’s heart trembled. Step through the door of a legendary realm, what does this mean? He recalled the three Shattered Divinities in his bag. Could these fragments be fused back into a complete Divinity?