There was a stand-off on the walls, but we didn’t have the time to wait for them to finish. Already, Copper Spear’s Era of Strife was engaging our backline and killing our players right before everyone’s eyes.

I gritted my teeth and pointed my sword at Amber Pupil. "Open your eyes and watch, dog! Godkiller and I will survive even without having to enter White Rose Fortress!"

After that, I ordered, "All units, break out through the north and enter Lost Forest!"

……

The Zephyr Cavalry activated Berserk and charged the enemy for the n-th time of the day. Our casualties were severe, and our potions and consumables were almost all gone.

There were only a couple thousand of us left by the time we finally broke out of the encirclement. We were all exhausted as hell, and still, the Fiery Scale Cavalry wouldn’t stop chasing after us. The lush forest before our eyes seemed to be our only hope.

Thud!

Suddenly, a Zephyr Cavalryman dropped his sword, fell off his horse and even dropped to his knees. He moaned in despair, "What are we even fighting for? We are hunted no matter where we go. Where is our hope? I don’t want to do this anymore…"

I had no words of consolation to offer him, neither had I the time.

Our pursuers were still chasing after us. Fear and despair clouded every Godkiller player’s face.

……

Swhoosh!

Suddenly, a fiery red figure burst out from between the trees in front of us. She was followed by countless elite riders who were clad in indigo armor, and everyone was wearing a bloody sword on their shoulder. It was none other than Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!

"Kill!"

At her command, every Dragonlight Cavalryman activated Dragon Soul Protection and attacked Era of Strife. Led by Chaos Moon, Li Chengfeng, High Fighting Spirits and more, the Dragonlight Cavalry easily ran over the Fiery Scale Cavalry like they didn’t even exist.

It was almost comical how quickly the tables had turned. Warscar, Hickey, Bloodthirsty Demon and the rest of the guild could only watch with their mouths agape as the Dragonlight Cavalry annihilated their opponent with impunity. Maybe now they finally had an idea what a champion cavalry truly looked like.

The commander of the Dragonlight Cavalry party—a female knightress wielding the Seven Star Veluriyam Spear and wearing a fiery red cloak—slowly walked up to me.

She shot me a beautiful smile and asked gently, "Have you finally decided to come home?"

……

I shivered from head to toe. One simple question from He Yi had almost caused me to break into tears. He Yi might be the only person in the whole world that I didn’t need to force a smile and put a brave front for; the only one that could make me expose the depths of my pain and hurt without disguise.

"Who… who is this lady? Is every woman in the China server this beautiful?" Warscar exclaimed in astonishment.

Bloodthirsty Demon hurriedly elbowed him. "Quiet down, she seems to know our guild leader…"

Hickey rolled her eyes at both of them. "Idiots…"

……

He Yi dismounted, walked up to me and wrapped me in a tight hug. She cried even though we were still surrounded by enemies and allies alike.

"Eve…" I murmured.

A while later, she wiped the corners of her eyes and smiled at me again. "I know. I know that Beauty Lin is here too. I just… I just couldn’t quite…"

"You don’t need to explain anything," I replied back.

"Mn."

Finally, He Yi let me go and greeted Lin Yixin. "Yiyi."

Lin Yixin had been pretending to be looking elsewhere until Eve called out to her. She turned around and said with a smile, "You took your time, Sister Eve. You had no idea how badly we were chased up until this point…"

He Yi giggled. "I can see that none of your equipped items is above 25% durability. If I came any later, you would’ve had to fight with your bare hands, huh?"

"Yeah, it was a horrible day…"

……

At the distance, Li Chengfeng and High Fighting Spirits were absolutely wrecking Era of Strife left and right while incurring minimum losses. It was worth mentioning that Li Chengfeng had climbed to Level 173 in half a month’s time. He was probably one of the fastest grinders I had ever seen in my gaming career.

"Retreat, retreat!"

Copper Spear shouted repeatedly while waving his blade, causing Era of Strife to run away like tidewater. Cyan Frost and her tens of thousands of Wildfire Riders also crept away after they saw our 20k Dragonlight Cavalry. They knew that they were no match for the Dragonlight Cavalry. Not only was the Dragonlight Cavalry famous throughout the entire continent, their numbers were much greater than before. Right now, there was literally no cavalry in the world that could stop them.

After Li Chengfeng shook off the blood on Dark Blade, he rode up to me, dismounted and gave me a big hug immediately. Then, he let out a hearty laugh and said, "You came back alive, brother!"

I laughed just as loudly. "But I won’t rest easy until I see you complete your eighth promotion, brother!"

Chaos Moon teased us, "Alright, enough hugging already! Did you both forget that you’re guys or something?"

High Fighting Spirits laughed at her. "You won’t understand this type of love, Chaos Moon!"

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you won’t understand!"

That caused her to cross her arms beneath her wholesome breasts and glare at me. "Sure, it’s just like how I can’t understand how it feels to have a raging boner all night, right?"

He Yi looked completely confused. "Er, what does that mean?"

Beside me, beet-red Lin Yixin bowed her head and carved two words on the grass with the Seven Star Veluriyam Sword: Fuck you...

Everyone laughed knowingly and skipped over the subject.

……

Li Chengfeng said, "I was grinding experience inside the A6 instance when Lil Beiming told us that you were being chased by the enemy. So, guild leader Eve rallied the Dragonlight Cavalry in a hurry, climbed over Sky Ridge and came to your rescue as soon as possible. I’m glad to say that we hadn’t arrived to a sea of corpses!"

I shrugged. "To be honest, there is a sea of corpses, but they are spread thin over the last few kilometers. We began our great escape from Iron Skull Wilderness with a troop of over 300k players, and over 90% had been killed by the time we reached White Rose Fortress… Oh right, let me introduce you all to each other first. These three are Hickey, Warscar and Bloodthirsty Demon. They are the friends and leaders I’ve made at Iron Skull Wilderness. Guys and girls, these are the Chinese brothers and sisters I often talked to you about…"

After I made the first round of introductions, High Fighting Spirits grabbed Warscar’s hand and shook it strongly. "Oh, so you’re Warscar! Do you know that you’re famous in the China server? They say that you cut down 20000 Beast King Cavalrymen all by yourself! We all call you the King of Destruction…"

Warscar looked like someone had punched him in the gut. "By the hammer, I wish I knew I was that powerful..."

Li Chengfeng: "..."

After the greetings were over, Li Chengfeng asked, "What happened at White Rose Fortress just now? Why didn’t you hide inside the city?"

Lin Yixin replied, "You think we didn’t want to? Dragons Run Wild is currently manning the fortress, and Amber Pupil came up with a billion excuses to prevent our entry. We didn’t have the time to entertain his bullshit, so…"

"What the fuck!?"

High Fighting Spirits’ anger meter immediately went from zero to a hundred. "That son of a bitch must be itching to die today! Let’s turn him into sushi before heading back to China!"

He Yi hurriedly stopped him. "Calm down. It’s a sensitive period right now, and Dragons Run Wild, at least on paper, is an alliance made to protect the China server from being invaded. It will be all too easy for our enemies to criticize us if we attack them at this time, not to mention that Tang Long is the mastermind behind this alliance. You wouldn’t want to give a master like him the chance to slander us."

Lin Yixin pouted. "You don’t need to be too careful all the time, Sister Eve. It’s an incredibly tiring way to live…"

Li Chengfeng corrected her, "On the contrary, if the guild leader wasn’t as careful as she is, our Dark Moon City would’ve been invaded a long time ago. You know how many enemies we have…"

I nodded. "Yeah, Chengfeng is right."

……

He Yi looked at the emblem on my shoulder—or more accurately, the lack thereof—and said, "I don’t know when you’ll be able to regain your in-game nationality, but I’ll do my best to accelerate the process."

I smiled. "Thanks, but there’s no need to rush things. I’ve actually gotten used to becoming an unaffiliated player."

Li Chengfeng asked, "What is your plan bringing a couple hundred thousand unaffiliated players into Purple Grape City, Lu Chen? Are you planning to move into the China server and develop your guild there, or stay inside?"

I clenched my fists and said, "Of course I’m not returning to the China server. For one, Dragons Run Wild will never allow that to happen. Two, that may be exactly what Tang Long is hoping to happen. I’d open the floodgates to an endless sea of slander if I did that!"

"What is your plan then?"

"Right now, we’re heading to the ruined Ice River Canton to find a neutral NPC supply camp there. My players have fought long and hard today, and they desperately need some rest both in virtual and in real life."

……

He Yi’s eyes lit up. "That’s a happy coincidence! Just yesterday, Princess Karinshan dispatched scout parties to the borders of Sky City. I received a quest to hunt down the undead mages who had slipped into the empire, and my destination just happens to be the ruins of Ice River Canton, or more specifically, the small NPC camp there. With your level of amity with Princess Karinshan, you should be able to persuade her to give you and maybe even your unaffiliated players a quest too."

"Wonderful!" I nodded happily. "In that case, let’s not dilly-dally any longer!"

"Yeah. We’ll escort you there."

"Yeah!"

……

We waited for a moment so that our dead could revive and rejoin us. After our numbers returned to one hundred thousand or so, we entered Lost Forest and traveled toward the Ice River Canton. However, we ran into a troop of elite cavalry not long after we began our journey. They were the 30000 Zephyr Cavalrymen I had given to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls a while ago, and their commander was none other than Xu Yang himself.

The guy currently wielded a broadsword, and he slapped my shoulder repeatedly while laughing heartily. "You sure took your time to come home, man! Also, I heard that you made a new Dutch girlfriend! Is that true?!"

He just couldn’t help himself, could he!? The idiot...

I responded with a bloodless face, "Cut the bullcrap and open up a way with the Zephyr Cavalrymen already…"

"Okay!"

……

About an hour later, we arrived at the northern border of Purple Grape City. Any farther than this, and we would enter Soaring Flame Desert, the map between Purple Grape City and Cyan Earth City. Even at a distance, I could see the wooden fences of the temporary NPC camp.

"There really is a temporary supply camp! Thank god!" Warscar rubbed his hands together excitedly.

Hickey was less optimistic though. "We don’t know if they’ll accept us yet…"

……

I walked up to apply my magical connections, and to my surprise, I was met with a beautiful and familiar face. "Ah, my dear warrior! You actually came to see me!"

Mona the archer? Man, what a coincidence this was...