"Candle Dragon’s here…"

Gui Guzi was lighting a dozen or so Beast King Cavalrymen aflame and dealing over 70k damage to each of them with Crescent Moon Flame when he spotted Candle Dragon. He said while looking at the distance, "They sure took their sweet time to show up. What on earth was Candlelight Shadow thinking?"

Chaos Moon replied, "Tear Stain is Candlelight Shadow’s junior sister. I even heard that they used to be in a relationship when Candlelight Shadow was studying abroad. Maybe the guy doesn’t feel like going all out because the enemy is his old flame?"

I casually slaughtered a bunch of people before replying smilingly, "Who cares? No matter what Candle Dragon’s stance is in this matter, we’re still going to seize the territory. At the very least, we cannot allow Tear Stain to occupy it. Otherwise, the Northern Alliance will be able to attack our hinterlands without having to go through the Fortress of the Iron Halberd."

"Yeah!"

……

It was at this moment Candlelight Shadow, Blue Sky Scar and Tempest Shadow made a beeline straight toward us. To our surprise, he used Ultimate Strength Break on a group of Beast King Cavalrymen, a skill that was normally ineffective against fighters, and actually managed to deal over 150k damage to all of them. It was because his Strength stat was super high—judging from his damage, he had to have almost 4000 Strength over these Beast King Cavalrymen at the very least—and his equipment was excellent. It also showed that he was super confident in his Strength.

Whoosh!

After he cast Outer Flame and instakilled the group of low-health Beast King Cavalrymen, he rode up to the area where He Yi, Beiming Xue and I were fighting and called out to us, "He Yi, Lu Chen!"

"Yes?" He Yi paused in her tracks.

Candlelight Shadow pointed at the territory and said, "Ancient Sword doesn’t need a Rank 8 territory, right? Tear Stain is my junior sister, so I would like you to leave Throne of the Wild to Candle Dragon to handle. I promise you we will seize it from the Northern Alliance in 7 hours tops. What do you say?"

I was fine with that. It didn’t matter who took the territory as long as it wasn’t the Northern Alliance.

So I nodded. "Sure. If you really can seize the territory, then we won’t contest it. We’ll even hold off Cyan Beast, Nation Guardian, God’s Domain and the rest of the pests for you, so you’d better exceed our expectations and seize the territory in four or five hours!"

Candlelight Shadow actually smiled a little before replying, "Got it. Just leave it to Candle Dragon. Thank you for giving me this chance to speak with Tear Stain without interference!"

After He Yi and I nodded, Candlelight Shadow immediately left to rejoin his troops.

……

Empowered by Battle Soul Possession and wielding the Dark Blade, Li Chengfeng slaughtered his enemies like a ghost of the battlefield. He was currently Level 177 and not yet at the level where one would undergo their seventh class promotion, but it was fine because he had already learned all his seventh-promotion class skills beforehand. Suddenly, a shadow interrupted his momentum and clashed blades with him three times in a row. The dragon warrior disengaged the moment he found an opening. It was Breeze and Rain who had challenged him to a fight!

While backing away, Li Chengfeng used Dragonblade Revolution and struck Breeze and Rain’s chest armor with Cyan Dragon Horn at the same time. His intent was to drive the latter further away from him. Breeze and Rain’s palm glowed with the light of Soul Capture, but Li Chengfeng moved in such an unpredictable fashion that the Agility Warrior couldn’t fight an opportunity to land it at all.

Obviously, Li Chengfeng wasn’t going to fight Breeze and Rain head-on because he was tens of levels below the latter. Also, he was more capable at ranged combat than Breeze and Rain was, so attacking him from range was definitely the right call here.

"Dammit!"

Breeze and Rain gave up on chasing Li Chengfeng and slapped his Soul Capture against a Dragonlight Cavalryman’s chest. Then, he followed up the debuff with Ultimate Strength Break. Since the Dragonlight Cavalry’s stats had been reduced by 70%, his Strength naturally became far weaker than the Agility Warrior’s. The skill bypassed his Defense and dealt a massive amount of damage—

271320!

Breeze and Rain’s act of venting his frustrations against a fellow Dragonlight Cavalryman pissed off Li Chengfeng completely. He readied his Dark Blade again and shouted, "Little Gui, Chaos Moon, Fighting Spirits, let’s wipe the floor with this guy together! Lu Chen, one-shot him if you find a chance! Let’s see what else Cyan Beast can do after we annihilate their vice leader!"

Gui Guzi and Chaos Moon immediately pincered Breeze and Rain and unleashed their respective AoE skills. Breeze and Rain only had enough time to parry Gui Guzi’s Crescent Moon Blaze before he was struck by Chaos Moon’s Rock Crush. High Fighting Spirits Charged Breeze and Rain before executing a devastating Xiezhi Howl, deleting almost 200k HP from the guy’s health bar. Just like that, the Agility Warrior had dropped below 25% HP.

"Fuck!"

Breeze and Rain let out an angry swear before flipping down his mount and slashing Gui Guzi right across the shoulder. Then, he kicked High Fighting Spirits in the axe handle and propelled himself from the frontline like a lightning bolt. Not only that, he managed to slash a Dragonlight Cavalryman on his way and kill that guy too.

Some distance away, I aimed my sword at Breeze and Rain and used Dragon Slaying Slash!

Thud!

Unfortunately, the energy blade missed by a couple of centimeters and slid harmlessly across the tip of his nose. It still frightened him enough to bleach his face deathly white though. "Heavens!"

Not done yet, Beiming Xue fired a number of arrows at Breeze and Rain’s general direction, forcing the Agility Warrior to scramble to safety on all fours. He just barely managed to escape under the cover that was his fellows of Beast King Cavalry. I was sure that he wouldn’t dare to show his face again for a while.

……

At another part of the battlefield, God of War and an entourage of a dozen or so first-rate experts were going to town against our players and allies. They had formed a vortex of murder that destroyed everyone who was caught in it in ten seconds at most. They were so successful that Du Thirteen walked up to me and pointed at them, saying, "Those fuckers are way too powerful. They’ve killed at least a hundred Dragonlight Cavalrymen! Can you deal with them, Lu Chen?"

I nodded affirmatively and flew to Beiming Xue’s side. After I pulled her onto the Ancient Divine Dragon’s back, I ordered, "Chengfeng, Chaos Moon, Eve, you guys will attack them from the ground. Beiming and I will attack from the sky. Beiming, you’ll use Well of the Abyss to break God of War’s mini formation later. The rest of you, kill them the second you find an opportunity!"

"Good!"

With the Ancient Divine Dragon, I was able to arrive at God of War’s location in just a couple of seconds. After I lowered its elevation a bit, a smiling Beiming Xue jumped off like a butterfly, landed on the ground and immediately started casting Well of the Abyss.

"Shit!"

God of War’s pupils shrank drastically at the sight of danger. "Incoming Well of the Abyss! Use invincibility or CC immunity skills!"

His entourage reacted extremely quickly, and God of War himself charged straight toward Beiming Xue after activating his own invincibility skill. However, the Dark Archer managed to finish her spell cast first, successfully trapping everyone except God of War himself and two other first-rate experts.

"Die!"

God of War immediately executed his Inferno Sixtuple Slash. If Beiming Xue died, there was a chance the Divine General Skill would be canceled prematurely.

Unfortunately, Beiming Xue was no greenhorn he could slaughter however he liked. She Leaped straight into the air and right onto the back of my Ancient Divine Dragon. After I wrapped my arm tightly around her waist, God of War lost any chance he had of killing her.

On the ground, fully-buffed Gui Guzi activated Killer God Formation, increasing his own stats by 50% and all of his party members’ by 25%. He smashed right through the enemy line like a truck and opened up a path for He Yi, Chaos Moon and the others to follow.

Fifteen seconds later, after Well of the Abyss reached the end of its duration, the players trapped inside it were spat out into a plethora of AoE skills such as Xiezhi Howl, Purgatory of Ice and Magma, Rock Crush and more. They never had a chance to save themselves. The 20 experts God of War had brought with him died just like that.

Pop pop pop...

They even dropped a ton of equipment and potions.

I glanced at God of War and clearly saw the pain on his face. Every one of these players was an elite in his guild, but they were surprised by Well of the Abyss and subsequently killed by our combined AoE skills. It was one of the most frustrating ways to die for sure.

……

At the back, Lian Xin, Murong Mingyue and the rest of our ranged players were slowly pushing closer and closer to the frontline as well. The Beast King Cavalry started losing people at an exponential rate when the mages’ spells and the archers’ arrows began. Although the Beast King Cavalry were ferocious enough to hold their ground, they were sustaining losses that were beyond God of War’s ability to accept.

Less than two hours later, the guild leader finally raised his sword and shouted, "Withdraw! We’ll reorganize and fight the enemy later!"

……

Cyan Beast’s players withdrew like tidewater, leaving us feeling both dumbfounded and dissatisfied.

"How do you think Cyan Beast performed in this fight?" He Yi was the first to ask the question.

Lian Xin replied, "It feels... like they’re not as strong as they were during the Nation War. What’s going on?"

I declared confidently, "They’ve obviously conserved their strength."

"Conserve their strength?" Lian Xin looked confused. "But why? They’re going up against us. If anything, they should give it everything they got!"

I smiled. "It’s a matter of self-interest, you see. While the Northern Alliance, Cyan Earth City and Elephant City had formed a temporary alliance, that doesn’t mean they aren’t scheming behind each other’s backs. There’s zero chance God of War would let all his elites lose a level for a mere territory, not to mention that it is a hot potato that no one really wants to hold if possible."

It was at this moment Li Chengfeng rode up to us and pointed. "Look, Snowy Cathaya and Blazing Hot Lips are fighting Era of Strife and Asuka Period right now. And that guy… the fuck? Isn’t that Red Maple? How is he grinding his levels so quickly? Looks like God’s Domain is finally going to make a comeback…"

……

We looked. As expected, God’s Domain’s Wildfire Riders were circling around the edges of the battlefield and plotting to hit Snowy Cathaya from the flank. The strategy was very Red Maple alright.

Without hesitation, I waved my arm and declared, "Well, what are you guys waiting for? Let’s take them out already! We’re here to act out the war movie, not spectate it!"

Everyone laughed before raising their weapons in response. We then took off to intercept God’s Domain’s players.