He Yi let out a sigh before explaining, "It’s a long story. Last night, Hero City suddenly launched a fierce assault on Fortress of the Iron Halberd in an attempt to occupy Dawn City again. So, the guilds of Wind City and Vanished God City left to deal with them. It turned out to be a miscalculation, however. Several super guilds of Titan City had secretly snuck into Vanished God City through Eternal Ice Snow Region and caused havoc there, forcing Candle Dragon, Purple Lily and more to withdraw and defend Vanished God City instead. But that was just the beginning…"

She paused for a second before continuing, "This early morning, India’s Elephant City dispatched a dozen or so big guilds across Black Coast and successfully landed at Sky City, forcing us and Snowy Cathaya to fight them. We had thought that that was the true attack, but we were wrong. Purple Grape City attacked White Rose Fortress at around the same time, and combined together with Elephant City’s troops they attacked the fortress from inside and outside, successfully wiped out all of its NPC troops, and invaded all the way to Floating Ice City. By the time we finally realized what was going on, the teleportation formations to Floating Ice City were destroyed, and the city itself was taken by them…"

I gritted my teeth in anger. "After that, Eve? What happened to Floating Ice City after that?"

She replied, "That damn Red Maple surrounded Floating Ice City and slaughtered all its players and its NPCs. Then, he occupied and abandoned it to turn it into a ruin. You know how that works. All those who set their resurrection points to Floating Ice City can only resurrect from the nearby graveyards, so…"

He Yi sighed again in humiliation and sorrow. "The elite forces led by Red Maple stayed behind at Floating Ice City’s Sunset Forest and are camping the players who resurrect there, killing them again and again. Even now, they are still camping them. Over half of Floating Ice City’s players have lost a hundred levels as a result, and because those bastards keep throwing Firewalls, they are in combat state as soon as they spawn and can’t log out of the game or teleport to a city. Already, many players have dropped to Level 0 and have been teleported back to the newbie’s village…"

"FUCK!"

I clenched my fists and uttered in fury, "What the FUCK are our people doing!? How can they allow these animals to continue doing what they want? Where’s Li Chengfeng? Where’s Gui Guzi? Don’t tell me they’re not online, and if they are what the fuck are they doing?? Our compatriots have suffered long enough as it is!"

"Calm down, Lu Chen…"

He Yi explained, "We were attacked at Black Coast by Olympus’ main army led by Titan God himself, and we were barely holding them off as it was. This Nation War, no, Nation Wars, happened so suddenly and so closely to one another that the Northern Alliance, the Indians and the Japanese had to have plotted this from the start. They must be planning to occupy all three of our three main cities in one go…"

I forced myself to calm down and said, "Eve, I want you to split up our forces and send Gui Guzi, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and anyone else you see fit to rescue Floating Ice City. Even if… even if we lose Dark Moon City as a result, we cannot let this atrocity continue any longer. I just can’t stand by and do nothing while our compatriots are slaughtered like that…"

"Got it, I’ll do that right away. I’ve been trying to contact you all this time, but wherever you were, it must have had an extremely bad signal. When can you come back online, by the way? We need your strength as soon as possible."

"I… I’ll be up in two hours!"

Got it…"

He Yi hung up and went back to business. This Nation War had erupted so suddenly that even though we knew that it would arrive sooner than later, we were still a bit caught off-guard. We should’ve known that a big war was coming. Ever since the China server shocked the world with their victory over the Northern Alliance during the War of Dawn City, the other main cities had felt threatened by us. This was without mentioning that India and Japan’s servers were hostile toward us from the start due to past wars. We should’ve known that the unnatural quiet that pervaded recent days was just the calm before the storm, and now the storm had finally descended in earnest!

Beside me, Chaos Moon said with an outraged expression, "I heard you correctly, right? Floating Ice City was massacred by the enemy?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Not only is the city abandoned, millions of players are still being killed right now. Many of them have dropped to Level 0 already…"

"Fuck!"

Chaos Moon clenched her fists and shot me a guilty look. "I shouldn’t have dragged you here, Lu Chen. Things might’ve been better if you were present…"

I smiled and patted her on the shoulder. "Don’t say that. No player can affect a war between millions of players single-handedly. Even if I was at Floating Ice City right now, there’s no way I could stop Red Maple’s millions by myself."

"At least you would’ve been able to keep Red Maple under control."

"We’ll see!"

A chill peeked through my eyes. "Red Maple, that sonuvabitch. I swear I’ll make him pay twice for everything he has done today!"

……

After we returned to Tekes County, I paid the uncle 200 RMB, bade him goodbye, and returned to the hotel right away. The sooner I caught up with the Nation War, the better!

Swhoosh!

The moment I appeared in Sky City, I could sense that the atmosphere was all wrong. Players were rushing in and out in a hurry. Not a single player stall could be seen in the square. I myself hurried to prepare for a long war. I ran to the potion shop, stocked up on normal potions, grabbed a bunch of Saint Spirit Potions from my warehouse, repaired my equipment and brought high-rank bread.

With that done, I summoned the Armored Ice Qilin Horse and got on top of it. Once I summoned the Phantom Wolf King as well, I activated Martial God, sent Eve a message—"Eve, I’m heading to Floating Ice City now"—and galloped down the floating rocks of Sky City.

He Yi replied, "Purple Grape City players are everywhere in Floating Ice City. Gui Guzi, High Fighting Spirits and 5000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen are almost there. The Monarch Descends, Snowy Cathaya, Blazing Hot Lips, Hegemon Palace, Warsky Alliance and more sent some of their troops to save the players as well, but expect to be drastically outnumbered anyway because most of our forces are occupied. Be careful!"

I know, and you should be careful too. I’ll meet up with you once I’ve chased Red Maple out of China!"

"Mn. I miss you!"

"Hehe, I miss you too. Let’s both do our best…"

Once the Armored Ice Qilin Horse reached the ground, I opened the world map and rode straight for Floating Ice City. On the way, I saw countless Sky City players heading in the same location. Not far in front of me, I saw a 50-man party that belonged to a Warsky Alliance subguild rushing in the same direction. A high-level axe wielder shouted on top of his lungs, "Our brethren at Floating Ice City are being slaughtered right now, but they haven’t given up yet, so how could we give up on them!? Full speed ahead, people! We may die in Floating Ice City, but we will not retreat until we draw our last breath!"

Warsky Alliance’s players were mostly like due to Warsky’s influence. The guild leader was the passionate type, and truth be told, there were few allies who were more reliable than Warsky Alliance at times of Nation Wars.

I rode past them because my movement speed was faster. When the axe wielder—a vice leader—saw me, he called out, "Is that you, Lu Chen?"

I looked back and nodded affirmatively, "Mn!"

He smiled. "You head over first. We’ll be there as soon as we can!"

"Got it!"

After the brief exchange, I returned to full speed and rode through the forest like lightning. The Armored Ice Qilin Horse and the Divine Martial War Boots boosted my movement speed to insane levels. The Phantom Wolf King was even faster, however. As an Agility-focused Level 195 Immortal Rank boss, it was even faster than I was. It looked like a blazing meteor as it ran ahead of me.

……

I passed through Floating Ice City’s borders in less than ten minutes.

The forest in front of me was lush and green, but their vibrance was marred by the light of skills everywhere. It showed how fierce the battle had become.

Chiang!

I unsheathed the Purple Ying Sword and activated undead energy. I then let out an angry shout—Wild Roar, a skill that boosted my Attack by 15%—and activated a Ghost Chariot Card as well. This was a critical battle, and I couldn’t afford to hold back at all.

I spotted four red names chasing a Chinese assassin in my vicinity. All four pursuers had the Japan flag in front of their IDs. I burned up with rage. Did they really think they could do whatever they want on our soil?

Chiang chiang!

The assassin parried two attacks but failed to stop a magic knight from stabbing his arm and critting for 30k+ damage. That hit had almost one-shot him!

"Ah…" he exclaimed in surprise and tried to retreat, but an assassin whose stealth was broken was no better than a walking target.

Right before he was about to die though, I swung my weapon twice and slashed two magic knights for almost 200k damage each—

172662!

192823!

I was in perfect condition, Martial God was active. It was only natural that I did as much damage as I did.

"Who are you?" the magic knight directly in front of me yelled.

"Your killer!"

I slashed his neck and dealt the final blow. Blood sputtered everywhere as he fell off his horse and died.

Two of the three surviving pursuers tried to escape, but I tossed the Purple Ying Sword at them and used Coiling Dragon Revolution. They died as a matter of course.

The last player tried to run away, but the Phantom Wolf King caught up to him from behind and bit his neck. A flurry of swipes later, he was dead as well.

……

With that done, I looked at the low-health assassin and asked, "Do you know what’s ahead of us, brother?"

The assassin was too busy staring at the golden WEL emblem on my shoulder in shock. He murmured, "Lu Chen… are you Lu Chen?"

I nodded. "I am. Do you know what’s ahead of us?"

The assassin broke out of his reverie and replied with deep shame, "You need to go help my guild, the Twelve Musicians now. They should be 25 degrees to the southeast and around 3000 yards from here. They’re being… being..."

"Being, what?"

"Just get over there already!"

"Okay. Take care!"

"Mn!"

……

I spurred my mount again and rushed toward the location he pointed me to. It wasn’t long before I saw a Purple Grape City archer darting across the forest and shooting two arrows at me. After I sped up and dodged out of the way, I one-shot the guy with a single Dragon Slaying Slash.

Less than half a minute later, a Level 71 female assassin suddenly stumbled out of the forest in front of me. Her body was covered in wounds, and worse she had lost all of her equipment. The only thing she was wearing right now was the simple newbie’s outfit. Long hair covering up her chest, she looked behind her with her fists clenched and uttered, "Those animals!"

The text floating above her head said—

Hugging Bears in Silence LV-71 Great Earth Assassin

Guild: Twelve Musicians

Position: Leader

……

"Hugging Bears in Silence…" I stared at her in shock. "I thought you were a Level 183 assassin?"

She shivered from head to toe and faced toward me. Then, tears streamed down her cheeks like a broken dam.

"Lu Chen, we…"