Outside the Huining Mansion in the capital, the Cold River City Alliance was unusually lively. Ever since the war preparation meeting ended, this place had suddenly buzzed with activity.
Thousands of players from the Creation, Cloudrise, and Hundred Flowers Palace gathered here, all having received orders from their respective sect leaders: group up and level up!
"40-man raid group looking for players, need various DPS and healers, starting when full!" "Ten consecutive sect missions recruiting, won't disband until full!" "Wild bandit lord group seeking strong DPS and main tank!"
In an instant, all sorts of shouts rang out outside Huining Mansion. Members of the three major sects gathered together—some farming dungeons, some doing quests, some hunting wild monsters. Even the three guild leaders, Hamster Pudding, Zhang Ergou, and Hua Qian Gu, joined the leveling frenzy!
Jiang Yuan teamed up with Hamster Pudding to form a bandit lord hunting group. With a few casual shouts, they quickly filled a full 40-man team.
"Jiang Yuan, I've adjusted the class composition. We can head out to find the wild bandit lords now!" Hamster Pudding, serving as the deputy leader, assigned classes to each squad and immediately reported in the team channel.
"Yeah, let's move out!"
Jiang Yuan glanced at the team's class setup, nodded in satisfaction, looked at Hamster Pudding, and waved his hand. Leading the team composed of members from Creation, Cloudrise, and Hundred Flowers Palace, they set off in full force toward the wild map outside the capital to hunt the boss bandit lord!
Meanwhile, on the "Central City" map of the Imperial State Alliance, Proud Dragon Emperor gathered with the leaders of the five major guilds—War God, Nine Regions, Elegance, Mu Shui, and Imperial Presence—inside the Central City's lord manor, discussing plans to attack Cold River City that evening.
Half an hour earlier, Proud Dragon Emperor and the War God guild leader had also finalized the main and branch strongholds each needed to occupy.
As one of the top three super-guilds in the Dragon Kingdom server of *All Realms*, the Proud Dragon guild naturally took the lead, selecting the Panlong Valley main stronghold in the Imperial State as their base. Meanwhile, the other two Imperial State guilds, Nine Regions and Mu Shui, chose the Seven Star Flat and Surging Wave Beach branch strongholds respectively.
On the Ten Thousand Mile Alliance side, due to the comparable strength of the War God, Elegance, and Imperial Presence guilds, a serious dispute arose over the ownership of the main and branch strongholds.
The War God guild, leveraging its status as the Ten Thousand Mile Alliance's leader, tried to forcibly claim the Longmen Mountain main stronghold, but the other two guild leaders disagreed. The leader position wasn't earned through strength; rather, Elegance and Imperial Presence had yielded it to War God as a courtesy to Proud Dragon Emperor.
This led to heated arguments among the three guild leaders. In the end, Proud Dragon Emperor promised a hefty supply of resources to Elegance and Imperial Presence as compensation, quelling their grievances. They withdrew from the main stronghold contest and chose the "Chaotian Gorge" and "Thousand Buddha Cliff" branch strongholds instead.
"War God leader, your Ten Thousand Mile Alliance only needs to send one guild to pin down the other two Cold River City guilds, Cloudrise and Hundred Flowers Palace. I've had people investigate—those two guilds are just small fry, nothing to worry about!"
After distributing the strongholds, Proud Dragon Emperor pointed to the northeastern direction of Cold River City on the massive Chinese world map hanging on the lord manor's conference room wall, addressing the War God guild leader.
"Alright! Elegance leader, Imperial Presence leader, which of you is willing to take on this task?"
War God's leader, "Call Me War God," tilted his head to look at the other two guild leaders, forcing a smile as he asked.
"A bunch of small fry isn't worth my Imperial Presence guild's involvement."
Imperial Presence's leader, "Wait for My Imperial Reign," proud and arrogant, felt it was beneath him to deal with two mediocre guilds, so he flatly refused, tossing the "hot potato" to Elegance.
"Uh... well... Elegance leader, what do you think?"
"Call Me War God" hadn't expected Imperial Presence's leader to outright reject the task, so he gave an awkward smile and turned his gaze to Elegance's leader, "Promise You a Lifetime of Elegance."
"Hmph!"
"Promise You a Lifetime of Elegance" snorted coldly and turned away, making his stance clear through action.
"Fine, fine! Since neither of you is willing, leave dealing with those two mediocre guilds to us War God guild. Consider it repaying you both for the favor!"
War God's leader smiled faintly, taking on the job himself. The "favor" he mentioned referred to the two leaders yielding the Longmen Mountain main stronghold to him.
Once arrangements were made, War God's leader "Call Me War God" turned around, his smile vanishing instantly, replaced by a grim expression and a flash of anger in his eyes.
"Haha! Brother War God, you're truly wise and righteous! I deeply admire that! Now, let's focus on the main topic—how to deal with Jiang Yuan!"
Proud Dragon Emperor quickly stepped in as a mediator, flattering War God before steering the conversation back to the meeting's key point.
"Jiang Yuan's strength lies in summoning thousands of minions, but he himself is quite fragile. If we send three squads of classes with powerful control skills to target him specifically, I doubt he can cause much trouble in a 15-on-1 situation!"
Having clashed with Jiang Yuan several times, Proud Dragon Emperor, confident in his understanding of the opponent, proposed a long-considered strategy.
"Some of our guild's specialized mages and archers have strong control skills. I'll hand them over to you to integrate into your Proud Dragon team!"
War God's leader "Call Me War God" nodded to Proud Dragon Emperor. As a guild clinging to Proud Dragon's coattails, War God always supported any proposal from Proud Dragon Emperor first.
The Nine Regions and Mu Shui guilds, both part of the Imperial State Alliance alongside Proud Dragon, naturally backed Proud Dragon Emperor's decision, agreeing to send their own control-skill classes to assist in dealing with Jiang Yuan.
With the plan against Jiang Yuan settled, the rest of the meeting became straightforward. The major guild leaders all agreed to use a "human wave tactic" to overwhelm the Cold River City Alliance led by the Creation guild!
Meanwhile, among the four major alliances, the Heavenly Wave Mansion Alliance remained silent. Its leader, "Ask the World," hadn't even called a war meeting, puzzling the other two guilds in the alliance. Yet they dared not inquire, opting to wait quietly for the alliance plunder war to begin.
Over in Cold River City, under Jiang Yuan's call, nearly all members of Creation, Cloudrise, and Hundred Flowers Palace spent the afternoon frantically leveling up. After hours of hard work, the average level of members from the two mediocre guilds, Cloudrise and Hundred Flowers Palace, had jumped by over ten levels!
With less than half an hour until the alliance plunder war began, undercurrents stirred among the four major alliances.
Because no one knew who would emerge as the ultimate victor in the upcoming alliance plunder war!