Chapter 1 When the Dust Settles

When the battlefield was cleared, Nie Yan returned to Cripps Fortress. Inside, the fortress was a hive of activity. Many players had received gold coins and contribution points from the guild, and they were busy buying new equipment or retrieving it from the guild warehouse, reorganizing their gear. Many had lost five levels, and they were forming groups to head to various leveling spots.

"Hey, Xiao Su, wanna go to the Sograt Burial Grounds?"

"Sure."

"We still need a priest. Any priests in the guild want to join?"

Today, there were more people calling out for teammates to level up than usual. After losing levels, many were eager to regain them.

"Leader Nie Yan."

"Leader Nie Yan."

When the players saw Nie Yan, they greeted him one after another, their faces filled with excitement and joy—the joy of victory.

Nie Yan entered the Cripps Fortress's guild headquarters. The elite players of the Nirvana Flame guild were gathered here, discussing spiritedly. Seeing Nie Yan enter, they all came forward to greet him.

"Leader Nie Yan, we won!" Undying Scoundrel said, deeply moved. Their victory had been hard-earned. Seven or eight out of every ten of the guild's elite members had been killed. Only the mages had survived in greater numbers, since they had summoned the Crypt Lords and hadn't directly participated in the battle. The other classes had suffered heavier casualties.

"We won!"

This one sentence summed up everyone's feelings—a sense of clarity after the storm, a rainbow after the rain. Their efforts had finally paid off. The Nirvana Flame guild had survived the turbulence, defeated all of its powerful opponents, and unified Calore. Everyone felt a sense of relief.

It was an indescribable emotion.

Nie Yan understood their feelings. He smiled and said, "Yes, it's over. We won. Everyone should level up. From now on, Calore is ours! We're in charge of everything here. Anyone who opposes our Nirvana Flame guild will be eliminated. Those who don't obey will be killed until they submit! We will coexist peacefully with players who are friendly to our Nirvana Flame guild and be absolutely fair!"

As the number one guild in Calore, the Nirvana Flame guild had to establish its authority, brooking no challenge.

Hearing Nie Yan's words, the crowd discussed excitedly. After fighting for so long, they had finally conquered Calore! What a cause for celebration!

The road to future development would be smooth.

The entire guild was jubilant, especially in the guild group chat, where many were overwhelmed with excitement. With the Nirvana Flame guild unifying Calore, their status would naturally rise.

Taking advantage of the moment, Nie Yan increased the benefits for all Nirvana Flame guild players. Now that the Nirvana Flame guild had secured its position, it was natural to let its members reap the rewards so that they would remain loyal.

After increasing the benefits, he instructed Brilliant Cutlass and others to lead a group of players to clear out the remaining fortresses. Once those fortresses were developed, they would generate considerable revenue for the Nirvana Flame guild. In addition, the Nirvana Flame guild would assist War God Tribe in continuing to compete for fortresses. War God Tribe needed more fortresses to generate revenue for the Nie family consortium.

Nie Yan gave the blueprint for the ballista to the Nirvana Flame guild's mechanics and had them speed up the production of bolts. These defensive weapons were essential for protecting fortresses. Once equipped, they could greatly improve a fortress's defenses and prevent harassment from the Alliance of Mages and Sacred Guardians.

After a brief burst of excitement, the Nirvana Flame guild immediately got busy. They understood that now was not the time to be happy. The Alliance of Mages and Sacred Guardians might launch a counterattack at any time. They had to level up as soon as possible to avoid being at a disadvantage.

Seeing that the Nirvana Flame guild was running smoothly, Nie Yan was relieved. In the near future, he could take a group of the Nirvana Flame guild's elite players to level up and make a trip to the underground every so often to earn more money. In addition, he had to get the remaining fragment of the Sothoth Shadow. Once he obtained it, he would have his first complete Legendary-grade item.

The Sothoth Shadow Greaves!

With all the fragments collected, the attributes of the Sothoth Shadow would be considerable, making it a good, powerful piece of equipment.

During this time, after much recollection, he wrote down the locations of some Sub-Legendary, Legendary fragments, and Legendary equipment on a piece of paper. He distributed the recorded locations to some of the Nirvana Flame guild's elites and had them search for them themselves. If they could get one or two items, it would greatly improve their equipment level.

As for the Shadow Dance techniques contained in the Shadow Imprint he had obtained earlier, he copied them and distributed them to some trusted thieves in the guild. As their levels increased, they would all have the opportunity to master Shadow Dance.

After arranging these matters, Nie Yan finally had some free time. Suddenly, he felt like something was missing. After this guild war, he hadn't seen Yao Yao. He checked his friends list and found that Yao Yao's name was grayed out; she was offline.

The time in reality was probably around two in the morning. It was a little strange that Yao Yao would log off at this time.

A bad feeling suddenly arose in Nie Yan's heart, but he immediately shook his head and chuckled. She probably had something come up and logged off.

He really wanted to share his joy with Yao Yao. The terrible shadows of his previous life were dissipating bit by bit thanks to his efforts. The Triumphant Empire and Warblade Tyrant had become history. He had weakened the Century Financial Group's power in Conviction. Although the future was still uncertain, he was confident that he could change everything from his previous life.

The gloominess had passed, and a bright future awaited him. Moreover, he and Xie Yao would be together and happy!

Just as Nie Yan's thoughts were wandering and he was lost in thought, he suddenly received a message from Xie Yao: "Nie Yan, some people came to my villa. They disabled the villa's security system. I'm very scared."

This was a message that Xie Yao had sent from reality using her phone.

Xie Yao's parents had been busy with their own affairs recently and were not at home. Only Xie Yao was left at home.

When Nie Yan received this message, he became extremely nervous. He quickly said to Guo Huai, "I have something to do. I'm logging off."

"There are still many things in the guild that haven't been dealt with. I just received a message from War God Tribe..." Guo Huai was about to tell Nie Yan that the actions of War God Tribe had affected the interests of the Tuoba family, and the Tuoba family had organized the five guilds under their banner to launch a counterattack against War God Tribe.

"No matter what it is, postpone it until I come back. Even if the Alliance of Mages and the Sacred Guardians attack Cripps Fortress, postpone it!" Nie Yan said in a deep voice, cutting off the voice call before Guo Huai could finish speaking.

Nie Yan exited the game pod, threw on some clothes, grabbed a few things, went to the garage, took the car, and sped off in the direction of Xie Yao's house.

The security measures in the Azure Waters Villa District were the best in all of Huahai. All of the security equipment here was connected to a satellite. Dangerous individuals could not enter Azure Waters Villa District unless they had relatively advanced equipment that could interfere with the satellite.

As soon as the satellite was interfered with, the management of Azure Waters Villa District would immediately receive a message and implement a complete curfew in Azure Waters Villa District, unless the opponent could be completely invisible to the satellite. This was a confrontation of technological means. The satellite in Azure Waters Villa District was one of the most advanced satellites currently available. To be completely invisible to the satellite, the opponent would need the most advanced technology from the military.

It was not impossible for the other party to have come prepared and obtained military technology.

If something happened to Xie Yao...

Nie Yan's heart was tightly wound, and he immediately banished this thought from his mind. He would not allow such a thing to happen.

The car sped along the road in Azure Waters Villa District. At a corner, it stopped about fifty or sixty meters from Xie Yao's house. To avoid alarming the enemy, he dared not park the car in front of Xie Yao's house.

He jumped out of the car and crouched down, approaching the corner of the wall. A nearly instinctive technique was etched into his bones: stealth! He was used to hiding behind obstacles, avoiding the gaze of others.

Nie Yan understood somewhat why the Federation wanted to promote Conviction. Conviction could greatly improve everyone's combat skills, like a national conscription. Since playing Conviction, Nie Yan's physical fitness had greatly improved.

He glanced at the surrounding surveillance equipment. The surveillance equipment seemed to be still working, but it should have been interfered with. He leaped up, agile as a swallow, crossed the city wall, jumped down from the city wall, entered Xie Yao's garden, hid in the dense grass, and looked towards Xie Yao's villa.

He forgot to wear black clothes when he came.

Xie Yao's villa was pitch-black, extremely quiet, so quiet that it was a little eerie.

Nie Yan slowly approached the villa in front of him, nearing the direction of the gate. At this moment, two black figures came into Nie Yan's view. They were standing in the open space in front of the villa, facing each other. He was a little surprised. Were these two the people Xie Yao was talking about who had broken into her house?

They should have come for Xie Yao, but why did they look like they were about to fight? Could it be infighting?

Nie Yan put on his night vision goggles, which he had grabbed casually when he went out. He didn't expect them to come in handy.

In the night vision goggles, a fleeting gleam on the roof a thousand meters away was captured by Nie Yan's eyes. Good heavens, a heavy sniper! The guy holding the heavy sniper was aiming at one of the people on the field from afar.

What exactly was going on? Could it be that one of them had come to save Xie Yao?

~~The frail Snail will begin to explode tomorrow. During the double monthly ticket period, please support everyone. These few days, Snail really wants to explode, because if the monthly tickets are widened these days, there is basically no hope for the monthly ticket list. Snail will take a rest and dedicate better plots to everyone.