As we left the beautiful Orchid Lake in a hurry, I had a feeling that we would be stuck in this premeditated ploy for a considerable time to come. The Nation War had just begun, and already Vanished God City had succumbed. The enemy had already surrounded Wind City, and soon Sky City would come under threat as well. A suffocating feeling crept into my heart. Unlike all the previous Nation Wars, this one wasn’t something a player or a single organization could turn around at all.

On the bus, I connected to the internet and searched for the details of Vanished God City’s downfall—

Vanished God City: Cyan Earth City’s Breeze and Rain, Shallow Sunlight and more completed an SSS Rank quest [The Devil’s Scar] and restored the soul of one of the Nine Sovereigns of Purgatory, Coldblade the Infinity Storm. As a result, the Purgatory Sovereign became considerably more powerful than before, and all the Night Creatures in Bloody Shield Domain entered a state of berserk. Led by Coldblade himself, the undead legion was able to break through the encirclement set up by Princess Karinshan and invade into Vanished God City. Not only that, they destroyed the heavy defenses set up by the seven great armies of Vanished God City like hot knife through butter, entered the royal palace and slain the king in the end. Left with no choice, Prince Cloudway the Dragonheart Knight and his troops withdrew from Vanished God City to Sky City with Princess Karinshan. Vanished God City’s name was changed to Vanished Devil City, and monsters belonging to the Night Creature faction had spawned all around the main city. It won’t be possible to retake it in a short time.

Stranger of Three Lifetimes had led the guilds of Vanished God City and resisted valiantly against the invaders, but they were absolutely no match for the combined army of NPCs and players. After reviving, Blazing Hot Lips, Hall of Immortality, Rose of the Holy Domain, Hunting Moon Dynasty and the rest of the super guilds moved into Sky City to continue their defense there. As much as people would like to assign blame, this unforeseen event wasn’t something any player could’ve changed.

……

I exhaled softly and looked outside the window to recollect myself. Then, I checked out Wind City’s war situation next. Currently, Wind City was at a complete disadvantage against the invaders. The Northern Alliance was able to penetrate the defenses set up at Bear Cave and invade Wind City en masse. Even more invaders had made it in via various hidden trails that allowed them to overcome the usually impenetrable barrier that was Dragonbone Mountain Range. Right now, Wind Canyon was crawling with players from the USA, France, Korea and more. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Wind City was currently being attacked on all fronts. Candlelight Shadow, Luo River God of the Capital, Indigo Collar and more were still resisting the enemy with all their might, but things weren’t looking good for them.

Things were even worse down the direction of Black Coast, however. Cyan Earth’s God of War, Wild King and more were crossing the sea with a massive army. They had used Dark Water Lake as a shortcut to reach the shores of the China server directly. Already, they had taken out one of Dragons Run Wild’s territories, and they were currently taking their time to form an encirclement around Dark Moon City. It was clear that God of War knew that the famous Rank 10 city of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls wasn’t going to be an easy city to take.

On the other side, Tear Stain had shared the teleportation access of her newly-acquired Rank 8 territory with most of the players of the Korea server, the Vietnam server, the England server and more. It enabled them to skip past Dragonbone Mountain Range and march straight to the borders of Sky City. This was certainly going to be the biggest crisis the China server had ever faced.

……

I clenched my fists and uttered through gritted teeth, "What are these shit-for-brains doing? I already told them to set up defenses on the 37 shortcuts, so how is it that the enemy was able to penetrate our borders like nothing?"

Lin Yixin put down her own phone and said softly, "Warsky Alliance, Righteousness, Candle Dragon, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Snowy Cathaya and more had all dispatched their elites to block these shortcuts, but the enemy’s invasion armies are equally elite, if not more. Take the shortcut Righteousness was guarding for example, Vienna’s Sorrow had personally attacked it with 12 Heroic Bannermen and the entire Hero Alliance. There was nothing they could’ve done to stop them. Not only that, the same thing is happening all across Sky City. We simply don’t have the quantity or quality of players to defend an invasion on all fronts, not to mention that they’ve plotted this invasion for far longer than we did our defenses…"

I leaned into my seat and sighed. "Right. For now, let’s see if we can hold Wind City. We already lost Vanished God City, we cannot lose Wind City as well…"

"Yeah!"

……

I logged into the game immediately after I returned to my hotel room.

Swhoosh!

I exited my tent, repaired my equipment and purchased my potions as quickly as possible. Then, I summoned the Ancient Divine Dragon and ran to the camp entrance. I noticed that Hickey, Warscar, Bloodthirsty Demon and more were already sitting atop their mounts and ready to go at a moment's notice. Hickey rode up to me and said, "We were waiting for you, boss!"

"Mn. How is the situation right now?"

"Your Vanished God City has fallen, and your Wind City is heavily surrounded. We reckon that it’s only a matter of time before it falls too. What do we do now? Should we travel to Sky City and join in on the defense?"

Hickey blinked once before continuing, "By the way, you don’t need to worry about Protective Umbrella not wanting to participate in this war. I’ve already talked with everyone and convinced them. The Dragonlight Cavalry of Sky City has protected us again and again at Ice River Canton Ruins. Now is the time we repay the favor. Protective Umbrella will protect both our and our friends’ homes."

I nodded. "Thank you. For now, we’re going to do this slowly. Hickey, I want you to climb up Sky Ridge with everyone and stop all enemies who attempt to pass there. I need to go to Sky City and manage the war there, so I leave the battles here to you!"

"Yeah, just leave it to me, boss!"

……

I mounted the Ancient Divine Dragon and discovered that it was Level 149, 97%. This meant that it was just 3% away from entering Level 150 and the Awakening stage. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to grind the remaining experience. Checking out Wind City and doing whatever I could to protect it was my topmost priority because Wind City was the home of Candle Dragon, Purple Lily, Peach Garden and more. If Wind City fell, our north side would be completely open. That was one of the last things I wanted to happen.

"Roar!"

The Ancient Divine Dragon slipped into the clouds and flew past the borders of Ice River Canton Ruins in the blink of an eye. At full speed, it took me only less than 10 minutes to enter Black Coast. That was when I looked down and saw that Dark Moon City was being attacked by the enemy.

……

The ground was crawling with Cyan Earth City players. More specifically, they were the Divine Elephant Cavalry led by the guild leader of Nation Guardian himself, Wild King. The man roared on top of his lungs—

"No need for trickery! We will penetrate their gates from the front! I want every ballista and catapult to be moved to this location now! This is Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand’s territory, and now is the time to take revenge against him! Attack! All-out attack!"

Xu Yang and only Xu Yang was commanding the defense from the walls. He pointed his sword at the enemy formation and shouted just as loudly, "Hold! Hold! Dragonlight Cavalry, we will ride out of the city and attack the enemy’s formation in a moment, so be ready! The Divine Elephant Cavalry will not take our territory no matter what!"

Behind the gates, 20000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen had already unsheathed their weapons and were ready to go. Everyone looked like a knight in shining armor today.

Thud!

It was at this moment I landed the Ancient Divine Dragon atop the gate. The lady archers immediately exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "It’s vice leader Lu Chen! Lu Chen has come back to us!"

I nodded and smiled at them. "Hello, everyone…"

Meanwhile, Xu Yang jogged up to me and said, "Finally! Lu Chen, I probably don’t need to tell you how serious the situation is, but here I go. Boss, Li, Little Gui, Beiming, Lian Xin and everyone else except me had left to reinforce Wind City. However, some time after they had left, Nation Guardian suddenly launched an all-out assault against our territory. They’ve already launched three all-out assaults and lost countless players, but that motherfucking Wild King is still throwing his men at us like crazy. We will truly be in danger once they manage to get all their siege weapons in position."

A chill flashed across my eyes as I stared at the direction of Nation Guardian. "No worries, brother Xu Yang. I’m going to teach them a harsh lesson in war very soon!"

"Mn!"

Speaking of which, I was still the master and city lord of Dark Moon City, while He Yi and Li Chengfeng were the assistant city lords. They had access to most of Dark Moon City’s functions, but ultimately there were certain things that only I, the city lord, could do.

……

Back on the ground, the beats of war drums filled the air as Wild King raised his weapon and shouted, "Attack! Flatten Dark Moon City and take this coastal fortress away from Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! This will allow our brothers and sisters to invade the China server directly!"

Creak…

It was at this moment the gate of Dark Moon City opened, and 20000 Dragonlight Cavalry rode out. Xu Yang himself jumped off the gate, summoned his mount after he landed on the ground and laughed, "I’m heading out for a charge, Lu Chen! I leave the rest to you!"

"Yeah!"

Facing toward the Dragonlight Cavalry was a 100000-strong army of grim-faced Divine Elephant Cavalrymen. Wild King urged his men forward, and they clashed against Xu Yang’s men in no time at all.

……

Meanwhile, the enemy’s siege weapons had finally appeared on the horizon. Siege weapons were the bane of all cities, and Dark Moon City was no exception.

I wasn’t worried though. I looked up and stared at a cloud-height building supported by almost a hundred purple stem pillars. It was none other than the Rank 10 building of my territory I took the most pride in, the Dragon’s Lair!

Chiang!

I abruptly pulled out the Purple Ying Sword and shouted, "The enemy’s at our doorsteps, Bone Dragons! What else are you waiting for! Go! Crush those siege weapons to bits!"

The sky immediately darkened. The Bone Dragons that were hugging the pillars and slumbering immediately awakened, took to the sky and rocked the ground with their earth-shattering roars. These 1000 Bone Dragons were the greatest undead dragons of Sophie’s brood. Suffice it to say, their bite was much, much greater than their bark!

……

"Ah? Wha… what is that?!" exclaimed Wild King as he stared at the darkness above his head in shock.

A few seconds later, the Bone Dragons swooped down and spat their deadly ice-and-fire breaths on Nation Guardian’s troops, inflicting massive damage and pain on them. The dragon’s breath dealt alone at least 200k+ damage to the 400k HP Divine Elephant Cavalrymen, and that was before the breath’s splash effect and the Dragonlight Cavalry’s charge. An entire group of Divine Elephant Cavalry was gone just like that, and since this was a Nation War, they wouldn’t be able to enter the China server again for three days.

Worse, the armor type of siege weapons was metal armor, meaning that they received double the damage from magic attacks. As a result, the Bone Dragons easily burned the catapults to bits.

……

"What the fuck is this bullshit…?!"

For a long time, Wild King could only stare at the disaster happening around him in shock. Finally, he recovered and ordered furiously, "All players, retreat! We will move to the mountain ranges and circle around this territory! Goddammit!"