The next day, I slept until noon before I finally got out of the bed. After finishing lunch, I noted that there was still ten or so minutes before 12:30 pm—the login time Lin Yixin and I had agreed on—and checked the news on the forums first.

A familiar red headline was still hanging on the home page even though two days had passed since: "Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Snowy Cathaya, Blazing Hot Lips and The Monarch Descends launch a surprise attack on White Horse City, and the Little Heavenly King Lu Chen abandons it after occupation! The Northern Alliance no longer has a deterrent force in the domain of the Chaotic 27!"

Usually, the headline would’ve been switched out already, but I wasn’t going to complain about it. It raised our players’ morale and boosted our reputation even more. These days, we were like the sun hanging in the sky. In contrast to our position, Candle Dragon was slipping away from their former status as the hegemon with each passing day. Candlelight Shadow, God’s Dance and the others tried everything in their power to turn the tide, but things just weren’t looking good for them.

Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls possessed super-tier experts like Li Chengfeng, Beiming...