The players of China stood outside Poplar Valley and waited patiently for the command to depart. No one stepped into the map and alerted our enemies of our arrival. Cavalry stood in great numbers on the open plains, and the core members of Candle Dragon, Purple Lily, Warsky Alliance, Blazing Hot Lips, Snowy Cathaya and more were all here. Everyone except Snowy Cathaya had dispatched between ten to fifty thousand troops. They were all the cream of the crop.

Clad in what looked like a set of brand new metal armor, Candlelight Shadow looked at Hot and Sour Noodles and asked, "Should we begin the offense now or wait a bit longer, Zhang Chun?"

Hot and Sour Noodles spurred his horse forward and said, "Let’s begin the offense. Candle Dragon will be acting as the vanguard. I’ve heard from reliable sources that the Northern Alliance has already begun setting up defenses in Poplar Valley, so they’re most likely already aware that we’re coming. In that case, let’s fight speed with even greater speed and make them bleed before they finish their preparations!"

"Very well!"

Candlelight Shadow raised his sword and shouted a command, and the Viper Dragoons followed the Martial God into Poplar Valley. The battle had officially begun.

"All troops, advance!" Hot and Sour Noodles ordered. "Enter Poplar Valley, crush the Northern Alliance’s plot and protect Wind City!"

Warsky, Purple Marquis, Eyes Like Water, Luo River God of the Capital and many more players rushed into the valley. Almost one hundred thousand players were gone in the blink of an eye.

"It’s our turn to advance as well!"

I looked at the players behind me and declared in a loud voice, "Attack and occupy Poplar Valley! Let’s teach the Northern Alliance a lesson in true positional warfare!"

All the Dragonlight Cavalrymen unsheathed their weapons at once. Then, they rode behind their generals—Li Chengfeng, Chaos Moon, High Fighting Spirits, Gui Guzi, Xu Yang, Heaven’s Rain and more—and rushed through the entrance!

White breath exited the Armored Ice Qilin Horse’s nostrils as it galloped at the forefront of the army. Directly ahead of us was Snowy Cathaya’s cavalry, and the most eye-catching rider of them all was none other than the black-armored beauty wielding a sword and a dagger and riding a ferocious white tiger, the Fruit Knight Goddess.

"Ooh, it looks like Beauty Lin got a new mount!"

Chaos Moon commented with a smile, "It’s the Immortal Rank mount, the Moonchaser Tiger, right? I saw its picture on the forums yesterday, but this is the first time I’m seeing it in person! Tsk tsk, what a powerful mount!"

I nodded. "Yeah. Lin Yixin and Snowy Cathaya will be joining us on our march to White Horse City later!"

"That’s great. Our chances of winning will be higher like this!"

"Yeah."

……

Steep mountain walls aligned both sides of the path, serving as natural barriers impossible to traverse for most players. Not even the best mounts could climb these walls, so the only ways to get through them was to either have enough Strength—players like this were very rare, however—or fly over it with a flying mount. As of now though, no one had discovered a flying mount. Even Lin Yixin’s ice dragon was just a flying pet, not a flying mount.

My vision widened when I exited the narrow trail. The valley was jam-packed with players, and over 70% of them belonged to the Northern Alliance. Despite our inferior numbers, we were slowly pushing forward with Candlelight Shadow leading the charge and killing countless players with his weapon and Divine General Skill.

A system ring entered my ears. The amount of players in Poplar Valley had reached a point where it was officially recognized as "The Battle of Poplar Valley”. If the number of players continued to increase, then it might even be recognized as “A Glorious Battle Like None Other”. Chances were it wasn’t going to happen, however. Dawn Valley was way bigger than Poplar Valley—that map could fit at least 100 Poplar Valleys or more—and its terrain was far more varied and thus, forced the players to fight in many creative ways. Be it in terms of scale or tactics, the War of Dawn City was currently still the most impressive Nation War thus far. It was why the videos of the key battles of the War of Dawn City still had some of the highest number of clicks on the official forums.

Candle Dragon, Warsky Alliance and Purple Lily were the main forces of the Chinese faction this time. The two Divine Generals, Candlelight Shadow and Warsky were wreaking havoc at the frontlines, but Luo River God of the Capital was in no way inferior to them thanks to her ridiculous Famous General Skill and magic skills.

Battle cries resounded across the valley, the flash of skills blinded the eyes, and the ground shook slightly beneath thundering hooves. The battle hits its peak intensity practically from the very moment of contact!

Chiang!

I pulled out the Cyan Netherworld Sword and pointed to the right, shouting, "Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, we will stay close to the walls and punch through the enemy line in an hour! Hmph, once we are through, we’ll be able to march straight to White Horse Plains!"

Everyone unsheathed their weapons and shouted, "Fight!"

Leading at the front, I charged fearlessly toward the fireballs, wind blades and arrows flying my way. The Phantom Wolf King was even faster than I was, reaching the enemy in no time and unleashing a devastating Purgatory Storm that split the ground and knocked the enemy magic knights upside down. Before they could recover themselves, I unleashed Thousand Ice Slash right on top of their heads!

Boom!

Many enemies were killed, and even more saw their feet frozen in ice. I completely understood why they looked as shocked as they were. My current stats were beyond OP, and my two Immortal-grade items greatly boosted Thousand Ice Slash’s chances to freeze the enemy. I reckoned that it was over 50% at minimum.

Beside me, I heard shrill noises of impact as Chaos Moon, Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi and the others’ mounts rammed into the enemy’s shields. Despite the knights using Holy Shield, our frontliners were able to deal great damage with Barrier Break and AoE skills such as Reverse Scale Slash, Rock Crush, Aurora Thrust and more. All the Northern Alliance magic knights who were facing us were screaming in pain or letting out death throes.

"You want to die!?"

High Fighting Spirits sent 5 magic knights stumbling to the back with a mighty swing of his axe. Then, he rushed toward them to split the ground and summon pillars of flames using Earth Shattering Slash. Finally, he unleashed his killer move, Xiezhi Howl and murdered the five magic knights and the dozen archers behind him all at once. The bloodthirsty berserker still wasn’t done, however. His axe escaped his fingers as he shouted, "Die!"

Boom!

The battle axe turned into a spinning blade of doom and cut through a dozen or so archers before returning to High Fighting Spirits’ hands. It was surprisingly similar to my Sword Boomerang!

Meanwhile, I pushed forward like a madman and took down every enemy around me like they didn’t even exist. The enemy magic knights surrounded me and tried to eliminate me with a concentrated barrage of Barrier Breaks, but all they did was trigger the Heaven-burning Armor’s passive and set themselves on fire. Heaven-burning Flame was extremely deadly, and it dealt continuous damage just like a mage’s Fire Wall. As a result, I left a literal trail of flames in my wake as I slaughtered the enemies.

The enemy’s counterattack was fierce as a matter of course. Even as I fired my Thousand Ice Slash and Burning Blade Slash at different directions and deleted huge groups of enemies, I tanked countless magic spells and arrows in return, losing HP at an insane rate. Thankfully, I hadn’t strayed too far away from my own people, and I was still within range of Murong Mingyue’s healing. A simple Restoration was enough to keep me going for a very long time.

……

Not far away from us, Snowy Cathaya’s Purple Dragon Cavalry was creating their own destruction under Lin Yixin’s leadership. Purple Marquis’s Absolute Zero terrorized every enemy around him, and Lin Yixin was shooting sword auras left and right while riding atop the Moonchaser Tiger. The gorgeous tiger babe and her subordinates didn’t meet too much resistance as they pushed through the enemy.

The fight lasted almost ten minutes, and as expected, the Northern Alliance players blocking our way crumbled and made a run for it. 20% of the battle line was swallowed by Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Snowy Cathaya just like that.

"Why do I feel like something is amiss?" Gui Guzi asked with a puzzled expression.

I nodded. "I agree. We haven’t seen a single Heroic Bannerman thus far. What the hell is the Northern Alliance planning? Are they trying to lure us into the deeper parts of the valley and ambush us?"

"That definitely sounds like a possibility…" Lin Yixin replied.

So, I looked at Li Chengfeng and said, "Chengfeng, take a hundred cavalrymen with you and scout ahead!"

"Understood!"

Li Chengfeng handpicked his troops and even brought Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun with him. After he was ready, he and a hundred Dragonlight Cavalrymen cut down about a hundred Northern Alliance mages and tamers—they had fallen behind their allies while making a run for it—before entering a narrow pass.

There was a sudden, violent noise, and I saw moving shadows above both sides of the pass. It took me a moment to realize that they were mages and archers with white IDs—it meant that they were neutral players who hadn’t declared war on us. More importantly, the nation emblems behind their IDs were mostly different from one another, and I recognized two of them. The sea blue-colored flag was Argentina, and the green one was Brazil. Fuck, the Chaotic 27 are on the move!

A high-level mage barked from the crowd, "Attack!"

And a dense mass of arrows and magic instantly dropped toward the ground. Their target was none other than Li Chengfeng and his cavalry.

Li Chengfeng remained calm despite the sharp spiral of the situation. He shouted, "Keep calm and stay where you are! Activate your Holy Shield and War God Recovery! In 10 seconds, I’m going to pass the party leader to You Yun, and we will make a break for it using Flying General, understand? Pooh, the Northern Alliance is truly shameless. I can’t believe they actually made a deal with the Chaotic 27!"

Magic and arrows thudded against their shields, and Li Chengfeng’s call was soon proven to be correct. None of the Dragonlight Cavalry had died from the bombardment, and after he passed the party leader to Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, the latter immediately activated Flying General and boosted everyone’s movement speed by 400%. They were able to escape while the players of Chaotic 27 were still winding up for the next volley.

……

After Li Chengfeng and our cavalry returned, our priests immediately got to work and healed them to full.

"Motherfucker!" That was the only comment Li Chengfeng had for me.

I grinned. "Yeah, we saw everything…"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun then asked, "What should we do now, vice leader?"

"I’m not sure. Let’s wait a moment and see what happens."

"Mn."

……

Some time later, a troop of Northern Alliance cavalry made a run for the narrow pass, probably to meet up with their main army or something. But to our surprise, the Chaotic 27 players on the mountains attacked again and killed at least hundreds before they finally got through.

A few minutes later, a dozen or so archers climbed down the mountain, grabbed all the equipment and returned to the top. Then, they hid themselves behind the trees and bushes and waited for the next haul.

……

Li Chengfeng sucked in a deep breath. "Holy fuck, this is daylight robbery if I’ve ever seen one! It’s not just us, they’re killing anyone who tries to pass through Poplar Valley and stealing their equipment! The people of Chaotic 27 truly have ‘outstanding’ personalities…"