The next day, 8 am in the early morning.

The four of us were sitting in the living room and drinking a glass of milk, ready to log into the game after we finished breakfast.

"I love Lao Suan Nai[1]…" Murong Mingyue said while licking the milk on her lips.

I grinned. "Once upon a time, wearing a pair of big toe leather shoes, my grandpa… [2]"

"Stop!" He Yi chided me before I could continue. "Can we please enjoy a peaceful breakfast for today at least? We need to be fully prepared for the counterattack at 9 am."

I replied, "Don’t worry, there’s little chance the Northern Alliance will station too many troops at Wind City. Swallow Ear Canton and Cyan Earth City are under attack by the three southeastern main cities, Earth Tiger City, Greedy Wolf City and Proud Dragon City, so they cannot afford to help the Northern Alliance. Russia’s Frostsword City and Iron Horse City are keeping Elephant City as well. This time, not only is it China + Chaotic 27 versus the Northern Alliance only, we even have the number advantage…"

"Mn."

"Moreover, I’m not the only one in China who has gotten an SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skill. Candlelight Shadow has gotten the Pangu’s Axe and ascended to the Heavenly River Realm as well. We can just leave the main assault to him and focus on getting the Nation War MVP or something. Wind City is Candle Dragon’s domain after all. He’ll do everything in his power to secure it no matter what."

"Heehee, yep!" He Yi let out a giggle before continuing, "Earlier this morning, I heard that Luo River God of the Capital, Moonkiss, Stranger of Three Lifetimes and Eyes Like Water have ascended to the Heavenly River Realm as well. However, their Ancient Divine Skills are only S Rank. It’s almost as if there are no more SS Rank Ancient Divine Skills in the Ruins of the Gods."

"That’s natural. There weren’t that many to begin with."

"Yeah."

I thought for a moment before saying, "The number of players who undergo their eighth-class promotions grows by several thousand every single day, so I don’t expect the bloodbath within Ruins of the Gods to stop anytime soon. Tell Li to get ready after we go online. Our players should assemble at the designated coordinates after they enter the Ruins of the Gods as well. If we can muster a ten-thousand-man party for him, there’s a chance he can kill an SSS Rank boss."

"Yeah!"

……

The girls went online one by one after we finished breakfast.

I decided to check the forums before doing the same. As expected, the China server had gained a couple more ascended players, and they were all famous in their own right—

Fury of the Descendant (S Rank): Increases user's Attack by 65%. Gather the power of the descendant to fire a rain of arrows. (Exclusive to Beiming Xue)

Phoenix Break (S Rank): Increases user's Attack by 75%. Summon the phoenix flame to blast all targets within a certain range. (Exclusive to Luo River God of the Capital)

Dragon Tooth Slash (S Rank): Increases user's Attack by 55%. Gather a blade aura to attack all targets within 15 yards. (Exclusive to Moonkiss)

Tiger Wing Slash (S Rank): Increases user's Attack by 55%. Gather a blade aura to attack all targets within 15 yards. (Exclusive to Heaven’s Rain)

Dog God Slash (S Rank): Increases user's Attack by 55%. Gather a blade aura to attack all targets within 15 yards. (Exclusive to Diamond Dust)

Hongming Blade (S Rank): Increases user's Attack by 75%, summon the Hongming Blade to attack all targets within 20 yards. (Exclusive to Stranger of Three Lifetimes)

……

Just as I thought, there were almost no SS Rank Ancient Divine Skills left in the Ruins of the Gods. It was to the point where even experts like Wang Luo, Stranger of Three Lifetimes and Beiming Xue could only be content with S Rank Ancient Divine Skills. They probably thought that being able to ascend to the Heavenly River Realm was good enough, and they weren’t wrong. This was especially true for players who hadn’t ascended to the Great Earth Realm yet because ascending to the Heavenly River Realm would grant them Divine Energy Points.

Beiming Xue’s Ancient Divine Skill was an archer-exclusive skill, so that was great. A skill that increased the power of Bow God was always welcomed despite it being only S Rank. Moonkiss gained Dragon Tooth Slash, Heaven’s Rain gained Tiger Wing Slash, and Diamond Dust gained Dog God Slash. If I remembered correctly, the three skills were a reference to the three demonic blades of ancient times. During the final years of the Xia dynasty, the tyrant Xia Jie had enshrined and worshipped the three demonic blades in his ancestral shrine to defend against Shang Tang’s assault. However, Shang Tang was able to shatter all three blades with the Xuanyuan Sword and seal them. Thousands of years later, a blacksmith of the Song Dynasty obtained the shards of the demonic blades and reforged them into three zhadaos, or lever-style guillotines, namely the Dragonhead Guillotine, the Tigerhead Guillotine, and the Doghead Guillotine. They were then granted to the famous Lord Bao, who put them to great use during his period of service.

Today, the three demonic blades had resurfaced to the world and became Moonkiss, Heaven’s Rain, and Diamond Dust’s Ancient Divine Skills. This could only be good news for the China server. In a sense, their blade auras were even better than my Xuanyuan Slash or Candlelight Shadow’s Pangu’s Axe. Our Ancient Divine Skills were SSS Rank, but could only be used once per 120 seconds. Their skill on the other hand, had a much more reasonable cooldown. In terms of sustained DPS, they were easily our betters.

I logged into the game and entered Dark Moon City.

The system dinged a couple of times informing me that Princess Karinshan and the nine legions of the empire had officially returned to Sky City. In fact, Sky City had been returned to the China server an hour earlier. With this, we had regained ownership of two main cities, and very soon, three!

……

I repaired my equipment and stuffed my bag with potions and cards. Then, I walked out of the territory and arrived at the clearing where countless Dragonlight Archers and Cavalrymen were already waiting in formation. Gui Guzi and Li Chengfeng were standing in front of them. It was worth noting that Li Chengfeng truly was a hard worker, and that he was at Level 209 now. He put a hand on my shoulder and said, "When you leveled up to 220 , I was Level 0. But now? You’re Level 211, and I’m Level 209. We’re only 2 levels apart now, hehehe…"

I felt the corner of my mouth twitch. "Fuck you. If it wasn’t for the Xuanyuan Slash, I would be Level 225 now, okay…"

"No one can deny fate…"

"Cut the philosophical crap already, will you? Anyway, let’s finish rallying the troops and depart already! We’re heading to Dawn Valley first before turning to Wind City!"

"Yessir!"

Very soon, He Yi, Beiming Xue, Lian Xin, Chaos Moon and more had all shown up as well. Not everyone had come online, but when we departed, we had 100k players from the main guild, and a couple hundred thousand more from the subguilds—almost 700k in total—marching slowly toward the direction of Dawn Valley. Dawn Valley had been a place where we fought to the death to protect Sky City. Today, the tables had turned, and we were the ones to assault the enemy in the hopes of retaking our last main city, Wind City in 24 hours tops!

……

I flew at the forefront on my dragon while Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, He Yi and more followed closely behind. Li Chengfeng couldn’t help the envy in his voice as he said, "It looks like the era of dragon knights is upon us. If even the likes of Breeze and Rain can become a dragon knight, we must strive to keep up as well. If nothing else, being able to attack the land from air is too big of an advantage to ignore. Let’s go find some dragon babies after this Nation War is over, people!"

Chaos Moon rolled her eyes and said, "You don’t think that dragon eggs are as common as chicken eggs, do you? First, you must find a dragon’s den. Next, you must kill a giant dragon. Only then will you have a chance of dropping a mount egg. Do you even understand how much the stars must align for all that to happen?"

Li Chengfeng replied optimistically, "What is a man without dreams?"

Chaos Moon shot him down mercilessly, "A man who isn’t delusional..."

Me: "..."

I decided that I had stirred the pot of envy enough for the day, so I activated Fusion Armor and floated back to the ground. Although I was on foot, I was still way faster than the Dragonlight Cavalry. An ignorant person might even think that I was a cultivator with good qinggong or something!

On a related note, Dawn City had been retaken by the Chinese force four days earlier. That was why we could see a ton of Chinese troops slowly passing through the Fortress of the Iron Halberd toward the Northern Alliance’s territories at the horizon. So far, everything was going as Zhang Chun had suggested yesterday. This army might or might not actually siege a main city, but the point was that their very presence would put pressure on the enemy’s heart and soul.

……

Our army marched through the canyon and entered a vast forest as I and a group of Dragonlight Cavalry opened up a path at the forefront. The fiend-rank monsters here never stood a chance since they were all below Level 250. About one and a half hours later, Wind City slowly emerged from the horizon.

The magnificent main city standing at the center of the canyon left us feeling breathless and emotional. Once upon a time, it was one of the three prides of the Center. Now, it had become the main city of the USA server. It was a slight we couldn’t withstand, and we must retake it today no matter how hard the USA server struggles!

We heard the sounds of battle even before we reached the foot of the city. A sea of enemy cavalry troops were riding toward us at full speed.

Standing together with us were Snowy Cathaya, Gods of Destruction, Warsky Alliance and more China guilds. They drew their weapons in excitement when they saw the incoming enemies.

At the distance, Warsky shouted, "Lu Chen, Zhang Chun wants us to focus on the eastern gate of Wind City, but how should we do this exactly? I can’t believe the enemy defenders would come out from behind their walls and try to engage us on the ground! What suicidal idiots!"

I replied, "Just do whatever you want. When we reach the bottom of the city, we’ll set up Cloud Stairs and climb up the walls. There’s no need to deploy our siege troops here. Our elite forces alone could flatten these weaklings!"

"Got it!"

……

I unsheathed the Purple Ying Sword and looked at He Yi, Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon and the rest of my generals. I said, "The cavalrymen in front of us are from Vietnam’s Hot Sand City, and they number at least a hundred thousand. It looks like the leak on the forums claiming that the USA server had convinced the Vietnamese to defend Wind City while Titan City and Hero City’s main forces attacked Seven Star City were true after all. They’re planning to use their allies to hold us back while they pluck Seven Star City from the Chaotic 27’s hands. Tsk tsk, so greedy…"

He Yi suggested with a smile, "It will be a shame not to use this to our advantage then. While we fight against the Vietnamese here, Zhang Chun should march to Hot Sand City with the troops of the Fortress of the Iron Halberd and trigger a Nation War. This way, the Vietnamese who died here won’t be able to revive in their main city. Let’s retake Wind City and conquer Hot Sand City at the same time and use the latter as our forward base to penetrate deeper into the north!"

I laughed. "That is exactly what I was thinking about! Please communicate with Zhang Chun and attack Hot Sand City now, Eve. The Northern Alliance won’t know what hit them until it’s too late! Oh, someone should contact the elite players at Vanished God City to help defend Seven Star City as well. The Chaotic 27 have the numbers, but they may not be able to withstand Vienna’s Sorrow all-out assault!"

"Mn!"

……

It didn’t take long for Zhang Chun to trigger his side of the Nation War and turn this from China server versus Wind City, into China versus Wind City + the Northern Alliance. Now, everyone who died within the affected maps wouldn’t be able to revive on them anymore.

1. (T/N: a form of watery yogurt rarely seen in western countries. Also known as Beijing yogurt, but I decided to transliterate it because it’s less misleading this way)

2. T/N: Lyrics from the song "Big Toe Leather Shoes" by Han Xiao