Spurring his mount onward, Gui Guzi once again shot forward like an arrow loosed from its string. Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and Heaven’s Rain charged in right behind him as they started their second wave of attacks. The Cyan Tiger Cavalry was extremely quick and their mounts were much faster than the mounts ridden by the enemy Ghost Riders. Hall of Immortality’s cavalry troop couldn’t even run away from them. They had no choice but to meet them head-on in battle.

Bang, bang, bang...

Mounts, armor, and weapons continued to collide against each other incessantly as the fighting started to turn exceptionally savage. Even the Cyan Tiger Cavalry couldn’t escape unscathed during this second big collision. Even as they were reaping the lives of their foes, a few of them started to drop off their mounts as well. The battle had turned white-hot!

……

This continued for a whole twenty minutes and the field of battle, which was about three hundred yards away from the city gates, had turned into a river of blood. As the Cyan Tiger Cavalry ruthlessly hunted them down, Hall of Immortality’s five thousand elite Ghost Riders were ground down into nothing. The biggest nightmare for these fleeing troops was Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun’s Famous General Skill, Flying General, which boosted the speed of his party fourfold. He flew across the battlefield with his men like a grim reaper, reaping lives wherever he went. All notions of escape were instantly banished from the minds of the players who were caught by him. Hall of Immortality’s horsemen stared at him with shock and horror as they cursed at him, “Fuck his grandfather! This uncle is way too fierce!”

Fury bloomed on Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun’s face as his killing blows grew even more savage and he started to leave even more dead bodies in his wake.

It was at this moment that even more tiny dots started to appear on the horizon. The main forces of Hall of Immortality, Throne Seeker, and Rose of the Holy Domain had finally arrived. Their troops seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see as they started marching toward the city. As I surveyed the oncoming troops, I saw that this army was at least three hundred thousand strong, and this was even after we had killed about eighty thousand of them!

Beep!

I immediately sent a message to Gui Guzi: “Little Gui, don’t get too caught up in fighting! I need you and your men to retreat now!”

“Got it!”

The distant Gui Guzi raised his Rainbow high in the air as he let out a roar of laughter and yelled, “Comrades, Boss Broken Halberd has beat the gongs and signaled for us to retreat! We’ll let these pathetic stragglers live. It’s time to return to the city and prepare for the next wave of challengers!”

His battle tiger roared as the entire Cyan Tiger Cavalry wheeled around and sprinted back toward Dark Moon City. After they had returned, Gui Guzi, Heaven’s Rain, and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun got off their mounts and started walking toward us with huge grins on their faces.

Gui Guzi chuckled as he said, “So? What do you think, boss?”

I nodded my head in approval. “That was an outstanding performance! Our guild didn’t spend so much blood, sweat, and tears to build this cavalry troop for nothing! All of you have brought glory to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Sky City today!”

Li Chengfeng stared at the distant enemy as he laughed. “I think that not even five hundred of those Ghost Riders managed to escape. Tsk, tsk, that was a beautiful fight. You killed more than 4500 of them in a single engage! Well done!”

Heaven’s Rain rested her broadsword against her shoulder as her grin grew even wider. She said, “Guild leader, we worked really hard, aren’t you gonna give us a reward?”

I chuckled, “You want a reward? Fine! After this defense of Dark Moon City, every single member of the Cyan Tiger Cavalry will be rewarded with additional fifty thousand contribution points!”

Heaven’s Rain’s tiny mouth dropped open before she squealed in delight. “I just entered the guild, so my contribution points are really lacking! Is the guild leader really going to give all of us fifty thousand extra points? Hey, wait a minute… you’re the vice leader! Are you sure you can make such promises?”

Li Chengfeng and High Fighting Spirits immediately broke out into huge bouts of laughter. As he wiped tears from the corner of his eyes, Li Chengfeng said, “Our pretty Rain, that’s the one thing you don’t need to worry about! Right now, the guild leader and the other vice leader are away on business, so Lu Chen’s word is his bond. Hahaha!”

Little stars appeared in Heaven’s Rain’s eyes. “Wooow! So big bro is the one charge right now, huh! Hahaha, he’s such a restrained person! In guilds like Flower Room and Mad Dragon, even a puny division leader already acts like the biggest shot in the room! Ah, big bro is so humble and restrained! He’s crazy humble!!”

I laughed out loud. I drew my Cyan Netherworld Sword and pointed it toward the distant Hall of Immortality players. I shouted, “Brothers and sisters, prepare for battle! Once we manage to repel this first wave of attacks, we’ll charge together with our cavalry! Let’s kill Hall of Immortality’s men and plunder their women! After that, we’ll go to Vanished God City and wreck their homes!”

Li Chengfeng hefted his sword. “Damn! That sure sounds restrained and humble.”

Heaven’s Rain: “...”

……

The huge army finally started to reach the outskirts of Dark Moon City ten minutes later. They had enough people to completely surround the city and then some.

Li Chengfeng sucked in a deep breath. “Holy shit. There’s at least 500000 people here! Fucking hell, there are really a lot of people in Vanished God City, huh! They really are enthusiastic about creating subguilds over there huh…”

I nodded my head. “That’s right. We honestly pale in comparison. Even building a single subguild makes me wanna die a little…”

Li Chengfeng chuckled as he said, “Well, the two of us are more suited to fighting than building. Let’s wait until Eve comes back before we start talking about building subguilds again…”

“Sounds good to me.”

Xu Yang hefted his sword and said, “Are we going to retreat back into the city so that we can take cover under the city walls? If too many of us warriors are outside, we’ll become easy targets for their mages and archers.”

I shook my head and replied in a grim voice, “We can’t retreat, especially those of us who are here at the western wall! We need to defend this place or die trying!”

“Why?” Xu Yang asked. He was quite taken aback by the vehemence in my voice.

I stretched out a hand to point at the enemy formation before I said, “Xu Yang, look over there. These guilds came prepared to fight today. They even brought some siege weapons to the party. You see those ebon vehicles slowly trundling toward us? The system database calls those Thunder Chariots. They deal extreme damage to city walls and it’ll only take them three minutes of continuous fire to destroy one. Can’t the engineers in our subguild also make those?”

“Fuck!” Xu Yang gritted his teeth. “Yeah, your judgement is always right. Thank goodness that we didn’t decide to withdraw back into the city.”

“Yeah.” I waved my sword as I continued, “We can’t allow those Thunder Chariots to get near our walls. Archers, mages, I want all of you to keep your eyes peeled for them!

A group of archers on the wall suddenly looked up and released a volley of arrows. As the arrows soared through the sky, they all landed more than one hundred yards away from the city walls. Beiming Xue and her group of elite archers were positioned even higher, and their range stretched up to a shocking one hundred and fifty yards.

……

“Halt!” Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch yelled as he raised the sword in his hand. “It looks like Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls have already prepared their defenses! Heh heh, this will be an interesting battle indeed!”

The guild leader of Throne Seeker, a magic knight called Emperor’s Equal, wheeled his horse over toward him as he roared with laughter. “What’s wrong, Battle Monarch? Are you feeling a shiver of fear after seeing the welcome mat that they’ve rolled out for us?”

“Fear my ass!” Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch spat back, a look of rage on his face. “Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls killed almost every single one of my 7000 Ghost Riders. I’m definitely going to tear my pound of flesh from them for that before the day is over!”

Emperor’s Equal gave a hearty laugh. “Now, now, there’s no need to be anxious. The guild leader of Rose of the Holy Domain is about to arrive. Once she does, we can start discussing how to conquer this Dark Moon City!”

“Alright!”

Soon, a crowd of players parted ways as a female knight riding on a pure white horse rode out from under the Rose of the Holy Domain’s pink banner. She looked to be about twenty-five years of age and she was decked out in a full set of silver armor, a slender sword in her hand. She wasn’t wearing a helmet right now, so her refined and exquisite features were on full display. Her bearing was extraordinary and she looked like the sort of player who was a successful career woman outside the game. A string of words were floating above her head.

Rose Thorn LV-138 Guardian Knight

Guild: Rose of the Holy Domain

Position: Leader

……

“Eh?” A chill went down Xu Yang’s spine: “The guild leader of Rose of the Holy Domain is a little girl?! Holy shit, I guess the saying is really true! There’s nothing more venomous than a woman’s heart! Why is this little girl attacking us with those two burly men anyway!?”

My lips curled up as I exclaimed, “Who the hell knows!”

At this moment, Rose Thorn hadn’t said a word to either Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch or Emperor’s Equal yet. Instead, she charged all the way to the front of her troops and only stopped when she was within a hundred yards of our city walls. As she reined in her horse, a few arrows were already streaking toward her.

Ding, ding, ding...

A silver shield of light appeared around Rose Thorn’s body and deflected every arrow that was about to strike her body. Those arrows didn’t even come anywhere near her. I furrowed my brow in consternation. It looks like this Guardian Knight class was as extraordinary as her looks. Just that defensive skill alone was enough to give us a huge headache.

As she spurred her horse forward, Rose Thorn waved her sword in the air and shouted in an adorable-sounding voice. “Hey, the leaders of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! From Water, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, and Murong Mingyue! Come out here and talk to me!”

Since both He Yi and Murong Mingyue weren’t around, I had no choice but to walk forward to greet her.

The blade of the Cyan Netherworld Sword trailed behind me as my Stormy Waves War Boots crunched into the ground heavily. The tattered Soul Suppressing Cloak fluttered wildly in the wind as I calmly walked toward Rose Thorn. My impressive-looking equipment made me seem both somber and calm and I looked like a death god who had just killed his way out of hell. Bloodlust was leaking out of every pore of my body, but I still seemed to be in complete control of myself. This wasn’t something that players who had never been tempered by any harsh struggles could replicate.

……

Rose Thorn looked rather shocked as she said, “Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand? Lu Chen?”

Thunk!

I thrust the Cyan Netherworld Sword into the ground and idly scratched my shoulder as I looked at Rose Thorn and replied, “That’s me. How can I help the guild leader of Rose of the Holy Domain?”

Rose Thorn let out a dry chuckle. “I wouldn’t dare. I’m just here for a bit of diplomacy. As you have already seen, Rose of the Holy Domain, Hall of Immortality, and Throne Seeker have entered an alliance to attack Dark Moon City. We only have one goal, and that is to conquer this territory. Lu Chen, you’re the person ranked seventh on the CGL Hall of Fame, so you should be well aware that these contests over territory have nothing to do with righteousness or evil. As such, I hope that you won’t regard Rose of the Holy Domain as your enemy, no matter the outcome of this battle.”

I licked my lips and chuckled before replying, “Don’t you worry, guild leader Rose. I, Lu Chen, am a man of my word. I’m not a petty person either. However, if a dog bites me, I’m definitely going to have dog hotpot and beer for dinner that very night! So I hope you can understand me as well. Pardon me for being frank, but if Rose of the Holy Domain attacks Dark Moon City today, you will definitely be put on our blacklist from now on, and I’m sorry to say that we will kill you and your people on sight if that happens!”

A small shudder went through Rose Thorn’s body before she started giggling uncontrollably. After she regained her composure, she spoke in a soft voice, “I’ve long heard about how loyal Lu Chen has been to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. In fact, you’ve stayed true to this guild since the Spirit of Grief era. You used your blood, sweat and tears to protect this guild back then and it seems like you’re doing the exact same thing right now. Since that’s the case, I very much appreciate having the chance to face off against such a respectable opponent today! Let us meet again on the field of battle!”

After she finished saying those words, Rose Thorn wheeled around and galloped back to her troops. After that, she raised her sword high in the air and yelled, “Rose of the Holy Domain! Prepare to attack the city!”

……

So we still had to fight in the end! I was also quite excited to meet this Rose Thorn and her Rose of the Holy Domain in battle. Any guild who could become one of the ten strongest guilds of Vanished God City was no slouch and Rose Thorn was definitely still hiding a few aces up her sleeve! She would definitely be a most excellent opponent!

I turned around and walked back toward the city walls before pulling my Cyan Netherworld Sword out of its sheath and yelling, “Everyone! Prepare to defend Dark Moon City!”