Dang dang dang!

Several steel arrows bounced away from my Heaven-burning Armor for tens of thousands of damage. These P2W arrow towers had so much Attack that they could pierce my Defense completely, to say nothing of the others. Already, countless riders were killed under their relentless assault.

"Come on, let’s flatten those arrow towers first!"

Li Chengfeng activated Battle Soul Possession and charged a Silverlight Arrow Tower with his men. I circled around a group of Northern Alliance cavalry and hit another arrow tower from the side. These fortifications were dealing an incredible amount of damage to all our players, so we couldn’t let them go to town on us any longer.

I opened my palm, paid 10 Divine Energy Points and fired ten golden seals in a row. The next moment, the ancient seals descended from the heavens like some sort of outerworld sanskrit and imprinted themselves onto the arrow tower. The structure’s durability was pretty low in the first place, so it didn’t take much effort to destroy it.

Lian Xin was following closely behind me with her Telekinetic Shield activated. She was being shot at by the arrow towers too, but unlike most of us, she wasn’t faring too badly because her Magic Attack was high and her Telekinetic Shield was insanely durable. She was perfectly capable of withstanding the attacks.

She waved her scepter and cast her super magic again, engulfing several arrow towers in sharp dimensional wind blades. The spell was already plenty powerful, but its 20x20 yard radius was equally ridiculous. I had no doubt that it was Lian Xin’s best AoE skill!

Boom boom boom!

The arrow towers crumbled one after another. This was just the first contact, and already Lian Xin had proven herself to be the best arrow tower destroyer of all of us. I was very glad because her return gave the guild’s mage party a much-needed boost. Who would dare to say that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls didn’t have good mages after this?

When Lian Xin returned, she would become the mage corps commander of our main guild for sure. Not only was she on par with the likes of Luo River God of the Capital and Stranger of Three Lifetimes, her unique class was even stronger than theirs. As long as she kept honing her skills, I could see her surpassing the current two mages in China with ease. Her experience grinding alone in a foreign country should’ve helped hone her skills a lot, and currently, she looked to be on the same level as Chaos Moon, or at the cusp of the super tier, to put it shortly. Skill-wise, she was just a tad inferior to the likes of Farewell Song, Candlelight Shadow and Lin Yixin.

During the battle at Poplar Valley, Lian Xin had single-handedly thwarted most of the experts who tried to kill her and even fought the Fruit Knife Goddess herself to a standstill. If that wasn’t enough proof of her strength, I didn’t know what was.

……

At the city, a group of Northern Alliance archers were trying their best to protect the crumbling city. A high-level archer aimed his bow at Lian Xin and shouted, "I want all units to shoot that traitor and kill her! Motherfucker, why is a Seven Star City player helping the Chinese attack our own people?"

Someone immediately replied, "That’s because she’s a Chinese exchange student. Also, I heard she’s so strong that not even Vienna’s Sorrow is absolutely certain that he could beat her!"

"Tsk. Kill!"

The archers obeyed their leader’s order and started raining arrows at Lian Xin’s direction.

The mage broke into a smile as she moved backward in an orderly fashion and dodged much of the enemy’s shots. At the same time, she waved her scepter and created a ton of Origin Force Fields on the walls, causing the group to fall off the walls and hit the ground with a splat.

Origin Force Field was an instant cast skill, meaning that it didn’t have a channeling time. With Lian Xin’s reaction speed, accuracy and control, she could dish out 12 force fields in 1.5 seconds if she wanted to, making her an absolute menace to fight against. Moreover, every force field could last for as long as 10 seconds, but if she cast another force field after the initial 12, it would replace the first force field. This meant that Lian Xin could create space with the Origin Force Fields continuously and manipulate the battlefield as she wished. An Origin Force Field cost 100 MP to cast, and Lian Xin had at least 20k MP, so MP cost wasn’t a problem for her either!

Outside the city, Xu Yang was waving his sword and shouting, "Keep up the attack! Siege engines, tear down all the walls and turn White Horse City into rubble!"

Thundering hooves crushed the defenders’ dreams, and our siege engines moved to the walls and knocked down the walls one by one. The southern walls were completely destroyed in just the blink of an eye.

On the other side of the battlefield, a huge gap had appeared on the eastern walls as well. Gui Guzi and the elites of Bloody Mercenaries were already riding into the city with Knight God. The Dragonlight Cavalry and Cyan Tiger Cavalry cut down all enemies in their path and approached the nearest arrow towers in no time, attacking them.

Bang bang bang…

The arrow towers toppled one after another. The Northern Alliance could build all the P2W arrow towers they wanted, but there wouldn’t be enough of them to withstand our assault. Since the southern walls were gone, the defenders couldn’t hold the other three walls either. Stranger of Three Lifetimes and Ling Xueshang launched their own all-out assaults and invaded the city in no time. Smokes rose everywhere as the entire city became embroiled in a terrible battle.

……

It took less than an hour to turn all the arrow towers into dust. As we progressed deeper into the city, we spotted buildings such as the smithy, the stables, the equipment shop and more. They were all closed, however. All the NPCs had escaped into the underground passages to avoid the onslaught.

We took some time to reorganize our troops. We had lost almost 700 Dragonlight Cavalrymen—leaving us with about 1300—and 40% of the Cyan Tiger Cavalry during the ferocious assault. However, our archers, mages and priests were almost untouched. It was understandable though. Most of our casualties were incurred during the frontal engagement, and by the time our ranged parties arrived, the walls had already been turned into rubble. They barely met any resistance at all as they came in.

I waited on a wide street inside the city. Behind me, the Dragonlight Cavalry, Purple Dragon Cavalry, Silver Leopard Cavalry and more were standing by for orders.

"All that’s left is the final assault. Let’s fight our way into the inner city area and take out the regent," said Lin Yixin with a smile.

"Mn." I nodded in agreement. "Everyone, it’s urban warfare time. Let’s charge all the way into the inner city area and give the enemy no chance to breathe whatsoever!"

Everyone unsheathed their weapons and raised them over their heads, shouting, "Let’s go!"

We resumed our advance. Tens of thousands of riders galloped along the wide streets as we rushed toward the inner city area.

However, we didn’t get far before an arrow rain suddenly descended from the sky!

Thud thud thud!

The dozen or so Purple Dragon Cavalrymen at the front were turned into porcupines immediately. They were killed on the spot.

"What’s going on?!" Li Chengfeng hurriedly reined in his mount.

……

Thud thud...

A pair of fiery red war boots appeared at the end of the street. There was an NPC warrioress standing there and watching us with grim determination beneath her red helmet. She raised her sword and ordered, "Redstone Legion of White Horse City, heed my command! Kill these invaders and halt them in their tracks!"

We heard thundering hooves as NPC riders and spear infantry emerged from both the streets and the alleyways. Archers appeared on the inner city walls, and mages started chanting their spells and turning the sky dark with their magic. Dammit, I knew that the NPCs wouldn’t hesitate to attack us!

The female warrioress in red battle armor was surrounded by cyan lotuses. It was clearly the visual effect of Great Earth Transformation. She was a high-level human warrior, and the text above her head stated—

Redstone, Baili (Immortal Rank Boss NPC)

Level: 200

Introduction: Baili is the most famous war general of White Horse City. She is also the princess and the only descendant of the regent, Oli the Third. Baili spent her whole life conquering the surrounding lands so that the poor White Horse City could survive on this dangerous continent. She once killed an undead magus residing in an undead cave alone, and fought three of the Hero Empire’s main forces to a standstill with just her and her soldiers. In White Horse City, Baili is a legend countless people look up to.

……

"Looks like we ran into a true obstacle…" Li Chengfeng said thoughtfully, "It looks like this Princess Baili is very hostile toward us. We may not be able to kill the regent and abandon the city as planned if we don’t kill her."

Chiang!

I abruptly pulled out my weapon and declared, "Then we kill her! No one shall stop us in our tracks now!"

"Alright, let’s go! Healers and mages, follow me!"

Lin Yixin pulled out her sword with a melodious ring. We rushed toward the boss side by side.

A ton of Galaxy Storms and Spiraling Arrow Blades flew toward us as we charged. These defenders were all Level 190 dread-rank NPCs, so they were even stronger than the players we had faced up until now. We lost over a hundred people in just a single volley. Our situation improved a little only after Beiming Xue, Lian Xin, Stranger of Three Lifetimes and Ling Xueshang provided us frontliners with ranged support.

……

Our response toward the infantry NPCs marching toward us was more straightforward. Us generals unloaded our Burning Blade Slashes, Ice Flame Slashes, Rock Crushes and other AoE skills on them while the Dragonlight Cavalry used Hoof Trample. Behind us, Lian Xin’s Ice Spiral Matrices and Dimensional Storms destroyed even the Level 190 dread-rank NPCs like nothing because we outnumbered them drastically, and our formation was far more scientific.

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh...

Our priests’ indiscriminate AoE heals also allowed our frontliners to focus on the enemy in front of them instead of their health bars.

Suddenly, a fiery slash sent a dozen or so Dragonlight Cavalry falling toward the ground. They all lost at least 100k HP!

It was the boss, Baili, who slashed them with her sword. Even now, her blade was glimmering with a hint of flame. She stared at us expressionlessly and declared, "Redstone Legion, attack! Show them no mercy!"

Lin Yixin and I exchanged nervous glances with each other. Fuck, a Level 200 Immortal Rank boss? What if we can’t beat her?

……

Swhoosh!

I fired a God Binding Art at the boss, but the skill only caused a bloody ripple to spread across the aura of her Great Earth Transformation. It was, of course, a MISS.