Warsky was obviously a smart person. He understood the concept of "hit-and-run" very well. After learning that he couldn’t go up against Beiming Xue and me head-on, he immediately moved his mage party to another location. Not even I could do much against an opponent like this except telling Beiming Xue to trail them like a ghost behind our frontliners and continue sniping their mages with Evil Spirit Volley and Spiraling Arrow Blade.

……

Boom boom boom!

Some distance away from me, Galaxy Storms flashed again and tore a huge hole in our flank. The spell one-shot dozens of fighters instantly, and some of them were even Fireblade Cavalrymen. There just wasn’t anything our frontliners could do against multiple Galaxy Storms that critted frequently except hoping for the best.

Warsky himself was fighting at the frontline, killing a Fireblade Cavalryman with Barrier Break. The battle was a bloody one as Warsky Alliance was no easy opponent. The body count went up almost every second as two of the strongest guilds in Sky City attempted to murder the hell out of each other.

At the back, October Rain was directing her archers and making them shoot Far Shots where it hurt, but she also partied a group of warriors so that they could benefit from the 15% lifesteal of her Famous General Skill and win a prolonged fight. She was a smart woman and an even more annoying enemy for sure. Lin Bing Dou Zhe’s party was hitting us hard since Renown buffed their Attack by 75% and Defense by 35%, but here we had Royal Road and Martial God, so we weren’t losing at all.

Moreover, Lin Bing Dou Zhe avoided clashing against me directly probably because he was afraid of my killer moves, Burning Blade Slash and Universe Break. He just kept roaming and killing our weakened fighters whenever he could. Unlike Xu Yang’s bold and direct approach, his style was that of an intelligent fighter.

……

Thud thud thud!

I launched a Burning Blade Slash at a crowd of Warsky Alliance players, killing a dozen of them immediately. However, I also took a chest full of arrows for my efforts, and there were two mages that kept throwing Galaxy Storms at me and He Yi from afar. It was annoying to say the least.

I pointed my sword at Lin Bing Dou Zhe and challenged him. "Why don’t you fight me, friend?"

Lin Bing Dou Zhe looked at me and smiled. "Patience. The time isn’t right yet."

Suddenly, a laughing High Fighting Spirits charged Lin Bing Dou Zhe out of nowhere and executed Barrier Break, the Invincible shining with bright red energy because of it. "One does not use a sledgehammer to crack a nut! You don’t need to do anything, boss. I’ll be his opponent!"

Puchi!

13782!

The one hit cost Lin Bing Dou Zhe more than half his HP. Caught off-guard, the warrior tried to withdraw to safety, but High Fighting Spirits gave chase and followed up with a devastating Xiezhi Howl that tore apart all the Warsky Alliance players who were unfortunate enough to stand next to him. It was like he had gone berserk; an animal stampede of a man that no human could possibly hope to stop.

Rustle rustle…

While waiting for his priests to heal him back to full health, Lin Bing Dou Zhe watched High Fighting Spirits rampaging just a few yards away from him and swore under his breath, "What is wrong with Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls? Even a random nobody is this powerful! Is this the kind of enemy Warsky Alliance has to fight against?"

High Fighting Spirits swung his battle axe like a madman while Lin Bing Dou Zhe was temporarily out of the fight. Invincible was both the signature weapon of a Level 120 warrior and the proof of strength of a fifth-promotion warrior. That was why a lot of people looked up to High Fighting Spirits right now. Unless you were a defensive warrior, everyone knew that it’s more thrilling charging the enemy with wild abandon like High Fighting Spirits!

In fact, some of our warriors did exactly that and got their asses wiped by October Rain’s Spiraling Arrow Blade and the mages’ Galaxy Storms halfway. I couldn’t help but goggle at them. "Those idiots, this is no different from committing suicide…"

He Yi giggled. "Well, they are a bunch of hot-blooded youngsters…"

I rolled my eyes. "Youngsters my ass. High Fighting Spirits is going to turn 40 in just a couple of years..."

"Age doesn’t matter. Some people are eternally young and hot-blooded, you know?"

"Well, that’s true. I know since I’m a youngster myself…"

"..."

……

The back-and-forth lasted almost an hour. After several trials by fire, both He Yi and I found ourselves very pleased with the guild’s growth and performance in large-scale combat operations. Warsky Alliance was the second-strongest guild on the Guild Ranking, and they were growing more and more powerful everyday. Despite that, the upper hand was solidly in our hands throughout this whole battle. Finally, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had grown from a pathetically weak guild to a true master of guilds. It was thanks to everyone giving it their all consistently throughout both the good and the bad times.

Gui Guzi kept charging in and out of the enemy formation until, finally, even he had grown tired of this battle. He rode back to us and said, "Boss, Sister He Yi, I don’t think we can keep this up much longer. We are losing more people than is acceptable since Warsky Alliance’s main guild and sub-guilds are trying to deplete our numbers with cannon fodders. We killed far more people than we lost, but Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls has less than 5000 people left, and Bloody Mercenaries less than 2000. This can’t be allowed to go on."

I nodded and looked to the distance. "It’s been an hour since the battle began, and Warsky Alliance lost a ton of people as well. We’ve killed so many of their main members that they had to use their sub-guilds as cannon fodders instead. In fact, Warsky’s plan is to hold us back with cannon fodders while he, October Rain and the mages waste us with Spiraling Arrow Blades and Galaxy Storms from the back. Hmph hmph, unfortunately for him, no plan survives contact with the enemy…"

Gui Guzi’s eyes lit up. "Boss, do you have a plan to counter this?"

"Yup!"

He Yi also asked me excitedly, "What is it?"

"We withdraw and let Snowy Cathaya go next!"

He Yi: "..."

Gui Guzi: "..."

……

So I contacted Lin Yixin and told her, "Yiyi, we’re losing too many people. I can’t let everyone die or the bastards will say I’m neglecting them and ignore my orders in the future, so… we’ve more or less taken out their main force anyway, so we’ll go to the outskirts to keep the other guilds from coming in and leave the next part of the assault to Snowy Cathaya, okay?

Lin Yixin chuckled. "Mn, okay. Thank you for everything, Little Cheat! You did well!"

"You’re welcome. Soooo, wanna get a room later when we’re free?"

"OMG, we’re in the middle of a territory war right now. Is this really the right time to tease a girl?"

"So? I’m about to disengage anyway. Come on, talk to me while we slaughter these noobs…"

Lin Yixin didn’t know what to say. "Fine, fine, I’ll talk with you. But if Farewell Song manages to ambush and kill me, you’d better take revenge for me, you hear?"

"I got it. I’ll chase anyone to the ends of the world if they touch even a hair on you!"

"Someone has a silver tongue today!"

"Haha!"

I turned off the communicator just in time to see Snowy Cathaya shifting from the wing toward us just as discussed.

I instantly raised my sword and shouted inside the guild channel. "Brothers and sisters, we’ve terrorized Warsky Alliance enough already! All that’s left to do is to withdraw to the outskirts, kill some noobs and stop the other guilds from getting inside!"

Li Chengfeng cheered. "Hell yes, I’ve been waiting for this!"

High Fighting Spirits shouted while swinging his axe, "Just let me kill a couple more of these bastards!"

I rolled my eyes at him and said, "Kill my ass! Get back here already! Gui Guzi, drag him with you if you have to!"

"Yessir!"

Gui Guzi cut a path toward High Fighting Spirits. Then, he grabbed the barbarian by the collar, lifted him into the air and returned to us.

……

We retreated to the borders of the territory and started relaxing. We felt no guilty conscience whatsoever since we had already completed our main goal and wiped most of Warsky Alliance’s main forces. The only ones we couldn’t kill were their Famous General such as Lin Bing Dou Zhe, Warsky and Laughing At The Heavens. Farewell Song in particular couldn’t even be locked down because he was a master at stealth combat, and he operated all over the battlefield like a wandering spirit.

Once we stopped at the wooden fences, we started exchanging glares with the random guilds parked outside the territory. Absolutely no one was getting past us.

Meanwhile, disappointed High Fighting Spirits moved to the gates and slammed his battle axe to the ground. Then, he looked at the distant players and taunted them, "What’s wrong? You wanna fight? Let’s fight then! Come come!"

The casual players looked afraid as a matter of course. Sure, High Fighting Spirits’ Invincible was an incredibly attractive bait, but they hadn’t forgotten that the barbarian warrior was a member of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. Moreover, all of our core players—I, He Yi, Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Beiming Xue, Murong Mingyue, Chaos Moon, Xu Yang, High Fighting Spirits, and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun—were alive and well, so no one had the guts to touch even a hair on our bodies.

And so the staring tournament continued as we waited for Snowy Cathaya to finish off Warsky Alliance and end this territory war.

For Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, this battle was basically one giant combat exercise. More importantly, it was a test to see how effective Barrier Break really was in a large-scale battle. I could now confidently say that the result was as good as I expected it to be. The 6-second skill was perfect for breaking defenses, and I’m sure the eight of us terrorized Warsky Alliance so much that they probably developed PTSD.

Some distance away from us, Lin Yixin was attacking Warsky Alliance with Purple Marquis, Clear Perfume, Shadow Chanel, and others. Unlike us, Snowy Cathaya had a party of mages who could cast Galaxy Storm, and even better, they were empowered by Bombshell. Finally, Warsky was forced to taste his own medicine. The Galaxy Storms absolutely ravaged Warsky Alliance, and it wasn’t long before they crumbled completely. Plus, it wasn’t like The Monarch Descends was idle throughout this fight. Ling Xueshang and her Unyielding also helped crush Warsky Alliance to the point of no return.

The war was settled in less than an hour. Warsky Alliance’s elites were driven into the elven hall, and Lin Yixin charged right in to fight them.

We were still watching the door while all this was happening. Some people were boasting out of their minds and talking shit. Some were teasing the girls and enjoying their reactions. It was almost as if we were having a party. The casual guilds were pissed off by our lackadaisical attitude, but they didn’t have the guts to attack us either. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, all they could do was stare with us with ever-growing envy.

……

A short while later, a ding notified us that Snowy Cathaya had claimed ownership over the territory!

Finally, the battle of the day was over. He Yi then suddenly said to me, "I need to log out for a moment. My phone is ringing!"