He Yi got off her mount, her beautiful eyes apologetic. She addressed the nearby players. "Why don’t you retreat for now. Well… No matter what anyone says, Snowy Cathaya is our ally. Even though we are duking it out right now, we will still be allies in the numerous battles to come!"

……

Clear Perfume, Shadow Chanel, and their party also stopped attacking.

Beep!

Lin Yixin sent me a message: "I’ll get Qingqing and Chanel to stand down and retreat from the guild hall. You’ve won. I’ll even leave them there to help you protect your territory. Treasure this opportunity, okay? I’ll be going offline first."

Lin Yixin did not even wait for me to reply, her name went dark the moment I heard the message.

I went quiet. Lin Yixin had a responsibility toward the tens of thousands of players who were part of Snowy Cathaya, so she had no choice but to participate in this battle. However, Lin Yixin had never been willing to make an enemy of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, so she had not launched any counterattacks against us just now. If not, there was no way that players like Gui Guzi, Xu Yang, and Chaos Moon would have been able to successfully kill the Fruit Knife Goddess.

I picked up both the Frozen Sword and Purple Marquis’s metal legguards. The sword was an Outstanding Spirit-grade weapon while the legguards were a piece of Outstanding Purple Gold–grade equipment. They were pretty damn good.

The players of Snowy Cathaya had gotten Lin Yixin’s order as well and they started to file out of the guild hall. I caught up to Clear Perfume and said, "Qingqing, wait a moment!"

Clear Perfume turned around, the rim of her eyes red. She pouted as she said in an unhappy voice, "What do you want now?"

I took out both pieces of equipment and said, "Help me pass these items back to Yiyi and Purple Marquis. This… Ah, I really don’t know what to say either. Once I go offline later, I’ll personally go and beg Yiyi for forgiveness."

"Hmph!"

Clear Perfume looked like she didn’t quite buy what I was trying to sell, but she took the equipment from me. After that, she smacked me with her fist as she said, "Lu Chen, you’re an idiot! A big fat idiot!"

"Hehe, that’s right…" I didn’t deny it.

"Hmppppph!"

Clear Perfume walked away in a fit of pique. Once all of the players who belonged to Snowy Cathaya left the guild hall, the ring of a system notice resounded in the air.

Ding~!

System Notice: Attention, all players. The guild “Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls” has conquered Territory 001. If they can keep hold of the territory for five hours, they will officially gain control of this territory!

……

I hefted the Heaven-stealing Sword as I turned around and grinned at the rest of my guild members. "Alright! Don’t look so grim, everyone! Let’s leave a few mid-level players here. The rest of you, follow me. Our true battle lies outside of these halls. The city gate has already been broken and we don’t have any NPC archers to help us defend the city. So we can only rely on ourselves for this last stretch."

Xu Yang rubbed his nose and said, "Bloody hell, to think you’d have the cheek to say that we’re looking grim when you were the person who looked the most glum just now…"

I chuckled and stopped in front of the players I had just chided. I said in a sheepish voice, "Sorry about that, brothers. I was a little too emotional just now. That… Hahaha, now that I’ve apologized, please don’t pick on me…"

Now that I’d bled the tension out of the room, the rest of them just laughed and waved it off. If they really did have an issue with what had just happened, I’d just kick them out of the guild. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls needed hot-blooded warriors, not cold and heartless players.

……

When we strode out of the guild hall, we saw that the battle was still raging everywhere else.

The two main threats we had to deal with were The Monarch Descends and Hegemon Palace. Hegemon Palace was especially threatening. Little Piglet hadn’t died yet, so his Famous General Skill, Vajra, was still active. He was currently trying to break through our lines with a horde of stalwart warriors at his back. More than a few Snowy Cathaya and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players had already fallen to his blade.

"Beiming, Moonlight, Gui Guzi, Eve, let’s group up and kill that dumbass Little Piglet. How does that sound?"

"Ah, it’ll be quite difficult. His defensive stats are too high. His effective Defense should be around 4000 now, if not higher. Vajra just adds too much damn Defense," Beiming Xue said with a pout.

I cleared my throat before replying, "Then we have no choice but to stun him before we launch an all-out assault on him. If we focus our fire on him, I’m confident we can take him down. As long as everyone has 2500 Attack, we’ll be able to do some damage to him even if he does really have 4000 Defense. Once we get rid of Little Piglet, Pillar of the Nation will lose one of his two main supports and he’ll no longer pose a threat after that."

Xu Yang raised his longsword in the air as he exclaimed, "Okay, let’s do that then!"

It was at this moment that Shadow Chanel stepped forward, her staff in hand. She said, "Lu Chen, could it be that you’ve forgotten about us? My Dragon’s Roar ignores physical Defense, so I believe it will be of great help to you."

I couldn’t help but chuckle, "If the beautiful Chanel is willing to help us, then we’ll be overjoyed to accept that help. Ah, about what happened just now, we’re truly…"

Shadow Chanel let out a tinkling laugh as well. "Forget about that. Let’s get this show on the road!"

"Okay."

I nodded my head and continued from where I left off, "Remember not to jump the gun, everyone. Let me slip in and launch a sneak attack first. I’ll take the opportunity to knock off half of Little Piglet’s HP bar."

"You can even enter stealth?" Clear Perfume was rather shocked by what I had just revealed.

I chuckled as I used Earth Escape. My entire avatar dissolved into a few rays of bloody light as I melted into the ground. Clear Perfume’s mouth dropped open in shock as she said, "Fuck, what sort of lousy stealth skill is this? Your movement speed is so slow too…"

I ground my teeth together at that insult as I said from below the ground, "Even if I am moving slowly, all that matters is that my stealth works. Also, erm… Qingqing, your panties are black…"

"Damn you!" Clear Perfume yelled as she stomped on the ground. "Lu Chen, you bastard! Ooh, you are so dead! I’m definitely gonna get Yiyi to kill you after this…"

……

Everyone erupted in laughter upon hearing those words, but I had already started moving forward. Little Piglet was currently squaring off against a bunch of melee fighters from Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls on the frontlines. His blade danced in the air and it seemed as if he was reaping the life of an enemy every 10 seconds. Even though his Defense was high, his Attack was also extremely shocking.

Pillar of the Nation raised his sword high in the air as he roared, "Little Piglet, keep killing ‘em! Fucking hell! I don’t believe that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls can hold on for much longer! They’ve already fought so many battles, so they should have lost a significant portion of their fighting strength! I even heard that Snowy Cathaya had it out with them in the guild hall just now! Heh heh, this territory is as good as ours!"

Shangguan Wan’er hefted her daggers as she slunk forward in stealth mode. "Cut the crap. We need to quickly think of a way to penetrate their defenses. Snowy Cathaya and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls definitely still seem to have a lot of fight left in them."

At this moment, I suddenly lunged out of the ground and summoned the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf. A pet and a player pounced toward Little Piglet, completely catching him by surprise. The Heaven-stealing Sword shone with a bright light as I hit him with a Pardon + basic attack. I immediately followed my combo up with a Thousand Ice Slash as I pressed in for the kill! That would get rid of the priests behind Little Piglet!

BOOM!

MISS!

5043!

1905!

……

Fuck, hitting him really was like punching an iron plate. Even my Pardon and basic attack combo only did around 5000 damage. My Thousand Ice Slash was even more pathetic, it hadn’t even shaved off 2000 points off his health. Little Piglet’s current Defense was simply ridiculous!

Though this didn’t mean that Little Piglet couldn’t be killed. His total HP was just a little over ten thousand, so I had instantly knocked off at least half of his total health points. His feet had also become covered in frost, which meant that he had been unlucky enough to have been frozen by my Thousand Ice Slash.

The Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf flailed at him, its sharp claws smacking against Little Piglet’s face with dull thuds. However, it could only deal him slightly more than 200 damage per hit.

In the back, Beiming Xue finally released the arrow that she had notched. It clattered against Little Piglet’s face and was soon followed by several others. Unfortunately for us, her arrows could not kill off Little Piglet. His Defense was simply absurd and he could drag this fight out forever as long as there was an enemy priest around to heal him.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

He Yi and Gui Guzi timed their Charge as they rushed toward Little Piglet. They didn’t even give him a chance to attack me as they both landed successive stuns on him. They immediately followed up their attacks by launching a Green Wave Slash and Aurora Thrust toward him respectively. These attacks one-shot the priests lined up behind him, depriving Little Piglet of his healing! He was running out of options fast!

Roar!

A deafening dragon roar ripped through the air. The Dark Tongue Mage Shadow Chanel had used her killer move, Dragon’s Roar!

8940!

What terrifying explosive strength!

Little Piglet’s eyes widened into saucers, it was as if he had been utterly dumbfounded by the fact that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had found such a strong mage. He flopped onto his back as he died, but he didn’t drop any equipment.

However, this meant that the players of Hegemon Palace were no longer enjoying the effects of his Vajra. They would now be much easier to deal with!

He Yi and Gui Guzi took this opportunity to charge the enemy lines. They rampaged through the battle formation of Hegemon Palace twice with impunity. There was no one who could stop them!

Once Little Piglet died, Hegemon Palace’s forces instantly lost their iron spine. There was no way that someone like Pillar of the Nation could contend with players of He Yi and Gui Guzi’s mettle.

My party and I spearheaded Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls counter-offensive. Our forces began to spread out in an arc as we pushed the players of Hegemon Palace backward. It was only when the last players of Hegemon Palace had fled beyond the borders of the territory that we stopped our relentless pursuit.

……

In the guild channel, Li Chengfeng said, "I died and returned to town. High Fighting Spirits and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun also returned with me. About four thousand more of our brothers died in the last battle and none of us are able to enter the Howling Wind Plains, so there’s no way we can return to help out in the territory war. Is there anything else we can do to help?"

I opened the map and said in a serious voice, "Chengfeng, lead those brothers over to the Dragonbone Mountain Range. Guard the valley that leads to the Howling WInd Plains and claim that place as our training ground for now. Don’t let any small guilds enter the area. By doing that, you’ll greatly lessen the pressure on the rest of us who are still fighting in the territory war. But this also means that you’re in for another fierce fight. Be prepared."

Li Chengfeng chuckled before replying, "No problem, we’re the best at team battles in the wild. Isn’t that right, Fighting Spirits and Eighteen Steeds?"

The two other people started laughing wildly as they crowed, "That’s right, that’s right! Fighting in the wild is the most exciting thing ever!"

After that, Li Chengfeng mobilized the players who had died during the territory war and led them out to fight for the guild once more. Those of us who were still alive had to treasure their sacrifice as we continued our fierce fight.

We still had around fifteen thousand players which belonged to Snowy Cathaya and their sub guilds. They were still a force to be reckoned with. Furthermore, Clear Perfume had obeyed Lin Yixin’s wishes and passed control over these forces over to me. That meant that I had nearly 25000 elite players under my command, a force composed of the best players of two super guilds.

In addition to that, we had also completely destroyed the forces of Warsky Alliance, Mad Dragon, Gods of Destruction, and Hegemon Palace in that meatgrinder of a battle. So it really shouldn’t be much trouble for the 25000 elites under my command to hold this territory.

……

It was also at this moment that I suddenly heard a "beep”. Someone had sent me a message!

I immediately checked the message and to my surprise, it had come from the guild leader of The Monarch Descends, Ling Xueshang.

"Lu Chen, let’s form an alliance!"

I was overjoyed when I read her message. In truth, I had been waiting for this moment for a long time. The Monarch Descends was an incredibly strong guild and they had a force of more than 20000 players outside of the territory. If they had decided to launch an all-out assault against us, we’d suffer terribly.

However, they decided to form an alliance with us instead, and the moment those twenty thousand fresh troops bolstered our defenses, our quest would surely be accomplished!