I let out a sigh of relief as Nation Guardian pulled back like the tidewater. Dark Moon City was the spine of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. Losing it would be absolutely devastating to the guild. Also, the 1000 Bone Dragons had proven to be incredibly useful. I should’ve known that the undead creatures trained by Sophie herself would be outstanding.

After the Bone Dragons had completed their mission, they returned to the Dragon’s Lair and clung onto the stem pillars like bats. At the same time, I issued them a new order. If the number of enemies that entered within 1000 yards of Dark Moon City exceeded 10000, they would automatically awaken from their slumber and destroy all of them. Now they could unleash their devastation even without my presence.

……

After Xu Yang returned to me, he asked, "The war at Wind City is dire. Should I and the twenty thousand Dragonlight Cavalry come with you?"

I nodded. "Yes. Everyone else will stay behind. Dark Moon City needs at least 200k troops to defend it. Take command of the Dragonlight Cavalry and meet up with Eve. I’m going to fly there first and get a handle on the war situation!"

"Yeah. Be seeing you!"

The Ancient Divine Dragon let out a roar and took to the sky. For now, the crisis of Dark Moon City had been alleviated.

The clouds acted like thick fogs that impeded my vision until suddenly, they cleared up completely. Then, a hellish scene entered my eyes. The flames of war were literally burning across the entire Wind City domain, and my heart chilled at the sight of it.

The flashes of skills happened all across the ground. I spotted the players of Northern Alliance, Cyan Earth City, Elephant City and even the Chaotic 27. Heaven knows what kind of coercion they received to join in on the invasion of the China server as well.

……

At the edge of a burning stream, a group of Northern Alliance cavalrymen was chasing after a couple hundred Purple Lily archers. They were going to die very soon if I didn’t do something to help them.

"Descend!"

The Ancient Divine Dragon swooped down on the cavalry troop, and I unleashed my Coiling Dragon Revolution, Burning Blade Slash, Summon the Storm and more. It didn’t matter how high their Defense was, no one here could withstand my Myriad Swords Obliteration.

The 1000-strong cavalry troop lost over 200 of their numbers in the blink of an eye. The cavalry leader’s eyes widened. "Shit, it’s Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand! Withdraw!"

They turned tail and ran, but I didn’t give chase. I looked back at the archers and asked, "Where is your main force? Where is it?"

One of the girls immediately broke down crying. "They’re trapped inside the West Wind Trail. They might even be destroyed already!"

"How is that possible? This is Purple Lily we’re talking about!" I exclaimed in shock.

"Vienna’s Sorrow and Breeze and Rain are commanding the encirclement personally. Not even boss will be able to break through them…"

"Fuck!"

I clenched my fists and checked the Nation War contribution points. As expected, Luo River God of the Capital was at first place with almost 3 times the points of the runner-up, Candlelight Shadow. However, her dim ID showed that she was dead. In fact, six of the Top 10 players on the leaderboard had all died. The fact that most of them were Purple Lily mages was all the proof I needed to accept that Purple Lily was truly destroyed.

It was unbelievable, but this was Vienna’s Sorrow and Breeze and Rain that we were talking about, two of the strongest experts in the entire world, be it in terms of individual prowess or strategic mind. In hindsight, it wasn’t surprising at all that the two of them combined possessed enough might to wipe out Purple Lily.

……

"I have to go. Take care!"

I leaped onto my dragon’s back and took off again. It wasn’t long before I spotted Wind City’s magnificent walls at the heart of the distant canyons, but it was surrounded by countless red names and defended by not nearly as many Chinese players.

I checked the Nation War interface again. The troop strength between the invaders and the defenders wasn’t comparable in the slightest—

Attacker: 79217371

Defender: 17991933

……

I couldn’t believe that the number of defenders didn’t even exceed twenty million. Heaven knows how many Chinese players had already perished in this war!

I spotted the Dragonlight Cavalry while I was still far, far away from them. He Yi, Gui Guzi, Li Chengfeng and the rest of our players were fighting beneath the eastern walls. The attackers had no choice but to withdraw after losing tens of thousands of bodies and achieving nothing.

"Hah, hah…"

Gui Guzi was panting heavily despite the victory. His Spear of the Knight God was coated in so much blood that thick globs were dripping from it and painting the flowers on the grass blood-red. He couldn’t stop a flash of despair from entering his eyes as he stared at the horizon. "Fuck, there’s no fucking way we can stop this. What do we do, boss…"

He Yi replied quietly, "I don’t know…"

It was at this moment I descended from the sky.

"Boss Broken Halberd!"

"You’re here, big brother!"

Gui Guzi and Beiming Xue exclaimed in joy at the same time. He Yi walked up to me with a new smile on her face. "Took you a while, Lu Chen!"

"Sorry I’m late. What’s the situation?"

I asked while staring at the Seven Star City players who had temporarily halted their assault. Either they were plotting something nefarious, or they were intimidated by our seemingly indomitable strength.

……

He Yi wiped away the blood on her spear blade before planting the weapon’s butt against the ground. "It’s bad. Right from the get-go, we had misjudged the enemy’s strategy. Candlelight Shadow and Zhang Chun both thought that the enemy’s focus was on the cities, and that they would strive to conquer them as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for us, they were wrong. Breeze and Rain was the one who came up with the strategy, and his plan is to split up our effective strength and destroy them all. After all, who can stop them if there is no one left to defend the cities..."

I shuddered. "What a horrific strategy…"

Li Chengfeng uttered through gritted teeth, "It was how Purple Lily was destroyed. All 400k+ of their main force including Luo River God of the Capital and Moonkiss were lured into West Wind Trail and annihilated. Even Peach Garden has lost a large majority of their forces, and Candlelight Shadow lost all of his fighting legions. Overall, Candle Dragon’s casualty rate is over 70%."

Gui Guzi clenched his fists. "Yeah. Almost everyone is dead…"

A bit of despair seeped into my being as I stared at the corpses on the floor. A while later, I turned away and said, "Can one of you tell Xu Yang to stop the 20000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen at Sky Forest? I told him to come earlier, but there is just no point anymore."

"What?" He Yi looked at me in astonishment. "Are you saying that we should stop protecting Wind City?"

I replied in frustration, "There are 48 hours left on the clock, the enemy is pounding at the gates, and their number is at least four times ours. Long story short, Wind City is already lost. No, Sky City is my biggest worry right now. If we lose it too, it will truly be over for the China server. Why do you think that most of the invaders here are Northern Alliance and Cyan Earth City players? It’s because Purple Grape City and Elephant City’s players are moving toward their final objective, Sky City. The King of Cities is their greatest threat after all!"

"W-what should we do then?" Gui Guzi asked in confusion.

I pointed at the enemy and declared, "We employ the same strategy as the enemy! I want all Dragonlight and Zephyr Cavalrymen to kill as many enemies as possible until they die! Every player we kill here means a player less to attack Sky City!"

"Yeah, okay!"

……

And so the 30k Dragonlight and 30k Zephyr Cavalrymen charged toward the enemy under my, Gui Guzi, He Yi, Li Chengfeng and more Divine Generals and Famous Generals’ leadership. Army-wise, of all the Famous Generals and Divine Generals present, Gui Guzi was the best of us all. His Knight God and his Killer God Formation buffed the stats of the several thousand Dragonlight Cavalrymen under his command by a total of 250% and made them practically unkillable!

"Kill!"

The Seven Star City players at the forefront shuddered from head to toe when they heard our battle cry. A second later, the merciless hooves of the Dragonlight Cavalry trampled them all!

Inspired by Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ counterattack, Snowy Cathaya, Blazing Hot Lips, The Monarch Descends, Peach Garden and more all launched an all-out assault against the enemy as well. If our city must fall, then the enemy must pay the price of blood!

……

Boom!

I cut open a path ahead and cast Summon the Storm for good measure. After Pure Love dropped all her buffs on me, and I used a Fire War God Card on myself, I jumped right into the thick of it and started slaughtering everyone. A single cast of Rise of the Guardian Dragon was enough to make my contribution points jump like crazy. These Seven Star City players must’ve killed a lot of Chinese players to yield so many contribution points.

Although I was an unaffiliated player, my ID was still shown on the leaderboard. I didn’t know if I would receive a reward for my efforts, however.

He Yi empowered her spear with Godslaying Blade and caused a ridiculous amount of damage numbers to rise in front of her. Not only that, her targets all took an insane amount of damage because their stats had been decreased by 30%. Royal Road was the best large-scale PvP Famous General Skill since the beginning, and that status probably wouldn’t change even until the end of Heavenblessed.

Speaking of Famous Generals, Li Chengfeng had risen to Level 180+ before I knew it. He was currently running people down left and right with Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust. Our cavalry numbered 60k only, and yet we were able to crush the enemy’s one million troops like they didn’t exist. Judging from the enemy’s pale faces, they clearly weren’t expecting this to happen.

……

The ground beneath our feet was warped due to the sheer amount of abuse it received and covered in blood. The air reeked of blood stench and the charcoal-like smell of burning clothes and bodies. This was always going to be bloody since our backs were backed against the wall.

A guild leader from Seven Star City was running away from us and shouting frightfully, "What do we do? There’s no stopping Ancient Sword’s elite cavalry!"

Further behind, Vienna’s Sorrow wiped the bloodstain on his blade and growled out, "So what? They can’t possibly kill all of us! Get your asses up there and rally more archers and mages! Let’s see who’ll be the final victor of this battle of attrition!"