"Is that a joke!?"

Song of Ice and Fire crossed his axe between me and Song of Cloud and Water and glared at me. He growled, "You want Soul Battle Robes to join your guild? The only way we’ll allow this is if Song of Cloud and Water is made the guild leader! Otherwise, don’t even think about it! We are the successors of Seven-Star Lamp, and we’ll never be mentioned in the same breath as those foreign, unaffiliated players of yours!"

Amused, I replied, "Just say no if you don’t want to join us. There is no need to slander us lonely, unaffiliated players whatsoever. However, are you sure Ice and Fire’s words are representative of yours, Sister Cloud and Water?"

Song of Cloud and Water’s chest rose up and down, and her eyes clearly looked torn by indecision. She whispered, "Of all the Divine Generals in the China server, I’ve always liked you the most and believed that you’re the strongest of them all, Lu Chen. I—"

She was about to say something more when Warsky interrupted her by putting a hand on her shoulder and smiling at me. "You’re as scummy as usual, Lu Chen. You don’t seriously think I’m going to let you steal Soul Battle Robes right before my eyes, do you? Hmph hmph, you already have Beiming Xue and Lian Xing, so why are you trying to take my younger sister away from me? Excessive greed will be your undoing…"

I shrugged and said frankly, "Sigh. It’s not like I want to do something like this myself, but poverty stunts ambition, and you know how terrible my current situation is right now. At first, I had to carry a bunch of low-level poorly-equipped brothers and sisters by myself. Then, we were chased out of Iron Skull Wilderness and pursued all the way to Final Duel Valley. Even after we’ve settled down at Ice River Canton Ruins, we were harassed by Era of Strife first and Throne of the Wild later. It was horrible. If I don’t gather as much manpower as I can, it is only a matter of time before our enemies flatten us!"

Obvious sympathy entered Song of Cloud and Water’s eyes as she said, "Is it really that bad, big brother Lu Chen? Maybe… I can spare you some of our subguilds…"

To my surprise, October Rain stepped out and interrupted smilingly, "Seriously, girl, who do you think Lu Chen is? He’s the playmaker who won the War of Dawn City and the War of Purple Grape City. If he can’t survive in the foreign lands, then no one can. Don’t listen to his bullshit, Sister Cloud and Water. He’s way tougher than he’s pretending to be!"

I curled my lips. "You praise me too much, Beauty October Rain!"

"Fuck off. You will not steal our people, end of story!"

……

A few minutes later, another group of players appeared from the direction of White Rose Fortress. This time, it was none other than the several tens of thousands of Dragonlight Cavalrymen led by Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ Famous Generals, and the near 20000 Dragonlight Archers led by Beiming Xue. Speaking of which, Gui Guzi had officially returned to the main guild—the main guild emblem on his arm was the proof of that—and Du Thirteen had retaken his position as Bloody Mercenaries’ guild leader once more. Besides that, hundreds and thousands of Ancient Sword elites were marching toward Soaring Flame Desert as well. It looked like almost every elite player in the guild was attending this battle.

"Boss Broken Halberd!" Gui Guzi greeted me cheerfully after arriving. "We didn’t come too late, did we? Were you anxious? Haha!"

I nodded at him before checking the time. "We only have 8 hours left. In 8 hours, we must kill every Throne of the Wild player in the territory, so let’s run wild for a bit while we wait for the other guilds to arrive, Little Gui. By the way, where’s Eve?"

"The guild leader is escorting our ranged parties. She’ll be arriving in a moment."

"Got it!"

While carrying her bow, Beiming Xue asked me, "What should I do, big brother?"

I smiled. "You just need to lead the Dragonlight Archers and cover our cavalry with Skypiercers. By the way, you’re eighth-promotion now, right?"

"Yep!"

"Can you explain to me your eighth-promotion skills?"

"There are two. The first one is Clear As Flames. Upon activation, it allows me to identify all invisible targets within 40 yards. The second one is Impossible Escape. Upon death, the eighth-promotion archer has a 10% chance to revive on the spot with 50% of their HP and MP."

I smiled. "Tsk tsk, not bad at all. A 10% chance to revive is always better than no chance to revive at all, not to mention that Luck can boost that number even further. With your Luck, you should have a 20% chance to revive at least. Clear As Flames is also a super practical skill and a must-have when scouting. The archer’s survivability is much improved after the eighth class promotion, I see."

Beiming Xue pouted. "I know you’re trying to console me, big brother, but no matter how strong these skills are, they’re still not as good as the fighter classes’ Blitzkrieg and Ultimate Strength Break!"

I looked at Gui Guzi next and asked, "How about you, Little Gui? Have you gotten your new class skills?"

Gui Guzi let out a chuckle before lighting his spear with the light of Ultimate Strength Break. "Ultimate Strength Break is an incredibly powerful skill. During the couple of times I sparred against Lil Beiming, I was able to deal almost 200k damage to her every time I landed the skill. There was even one time where I had one-shot her outright. Unfortunately, she also triggered Impossible Escape and revived, so…"

Me: "..."

……

"How much longer are we going to wait, big brother? Sister Eve should be arriving in ten minutes…" Beiming Xue asked.

I shot her a smile and said, "Then we’ll wait for her. Once she and our main force arrive, we’ll immediately siege the territory and try to become the first guild to seize it!"

"Mn!"

It was at this moment Hickey tilted her head and examined Beiming Xue for a moment before asking, "Are you sure she isn’t your actual sister, boss? She’s so cute…"

Beiming Xue blushed but didn’t say anything.

A while later, He Yi, Murong Mingyue, Lian Xin and the rest of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ ground troops finally entered Soaring Flame Desert. Arriving together with them was Lin Yixin’s Snowy Cathaya. I also spotted Blazing Hot Lips, The Monarch Descends, Pop Culture and more guilds trailing behind them. A great war was obviously culminating on this map.

Chiang!

Now that the time had finally arrived, I pointed to the city and shouted, "Cavalry, we’re taking the first fight! Prepare to charge!"

However, a group of Chinese players had launched an assault from the northwest direction first even before I could unsheath my sword. They were none other than the Mad Dragon and Flower Room’s alliance of guilds. Even Dominating Heaven Blade had shown himself with several tens of thousands players. As important as this territory war was, it was just a territory war. The guilds didn’t bring their entire armies, only around 30% or so. By no means were they conserving their strength though. All the players here were the guilds’ elites. There just wasn’t much point bringing low-level players who wouldn’t be enough to even be cannon fodder.

……

"OMG, why are those idiots so impulsive?" Lin Yixin uttered through gritted teeth.

Purple Marquis shrugged. "Who cares about them?"

Li Chengfeng looked on hesitantly. "Ah, dammit. Are we still launching our assault, or…?"

"We are!" I clenched my teeth tighter. "We’re going to annihilate the 150k Divine Elephant Cavalry first. That idiot Wild King threatened Godkiller earlier, and I’m absolutely going to make him pay for it!"

Gui Guzi raised his Spear of the Knight God high and declared with a guffaw, "You heard the boss, Dragonlight Cavalry. Let’s show the Divine Elephant Cavalry of Nation Guardian what we’re made of!"

The 50k elite cavalrymen laughed and raised their weapons as well. I, He Yi, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon, Li Chengfeng and more formed our thousand-man parties and activated our respective Famous General Skills. After everything was ready, we took off and charged straight toward Nation Guardian’s formation. Speaking of which, High Fighting Spirits was riding side by side with Warscar, and both animals in human skin were hollering on top of their lungs. They were easily one of the most intimidating duos in the world.

……

"Fuck…"

Wild King felt like his eyes were about to fall out of their eye sockets when he saw that the Dragonlight Cavalry was charging toward him. This was far worse than the time he had fought them during the War of Purple Grape City because the Dragonlight Cavalry only numbered around 15000 players back then. Not only that, a lot of them had completed their eighth class promotions and picked up the super skill, Ultimate Strength Break. He might be the guild leader of Nation Guardian and a warrior with several great wars under his belt, but he still couldn’t help but shake at the sight of them.

"Kill!"

Wild King abruptly raised his spear and roared angrily, "Don’t fear the enemy’s strength! We are Nation Guardian, the king of guardians of Cyan Earth City! Show them what we’re made of!"

And so, the two cavalry troops met at the center of the plains in one massive, continuous impact. The world was literally rocking like an earthquake!

Bang bang bang…

The sheer amount of force of two cavalries slamming into one another sent countless fighters flying into the air. As the familiar music of blade sinking into flesh began, High Fighting Spirits waved his battle axe and shouted a skill that I hadn’t seen in a very long time, Xiezhi Howl. Most Divine Elephant Cavalrymen lost a ton of HP, and some were even one-shot where they stood.

A short distance away, He Yi was swinging her Seven Star Veluriyam Spear repeatedly and dealing massive damage with her Godslaying Blade. Li Chengfeng was slashing necks like the Dark Blade weighed nothing before changing his style all of a sudden and executing a brute-force Dragonblade Revolution, killing even more.

…

The battle turned completely one-sided in our favor after just ten minutes. The usually indomitable Divine Elephant Cavalry fell like wheats to the scythe that was the improved Dragonlight Cavalry. Although they outnumbered us three to one, they were losing almost immediately after they made contact with us.

"How… how can this be?!"

Wild King roared furiously while fighting, "How did we lose so quickly?! Hang on, brothers and sisters! The Beast King Cavalry will come to our rescue in just a moment! Hang on…"

Wild King didn’t know that I had upgraded the Dragonlight Cavalry with the Brave General Horseshoes. Almost 100k Brave General Horseshoes had been forged in total, and they improved the Dragonlight Cavalry’s strength so much that the outcome of this battle was completely different from the last time we fought the Divine Elephant Cavalry. It was no wonder Wild King found it difficult to accept reality.

……

When the main guild’s 30k Zephyr Cavalrymen joined the battle as well, any chance Nation Guardian might’ve had at turning this around was lost completely. The army of 150k Divine Elephant Cavalrymen had been shredded with almost no resistance whatsoever.

"Withdraw! Cyan Beast will deal with them!"

Wild King finally broke and escaped, but we didn’t try to give chase. Less than ten minutes later, God of War and Breeze and Rain showed up to replace Nation Guardian as we expected they would.

Too bad for them, our main guild had grown too strong to be worn down by continuous battle!