We saw thousands of dead Chinese players inside the canyon. Clearly, Zhang Chun had ordered dozens of big-sized guilds to attack Hot Sand City, but the Vietnamese had intercepted their troops halfway, cut off their rear, and killed the follow-up parties. It was a simple but effective tactic since Vanished God City alone couldn’t conquer Hot Sand City. However, our lightning-fast retake of Wind City and early arrival at their doorsteps had clearly caught them by surprise.

……

Warsky charged with his Qiu Beast Cavalry and assaulted The Storm and Daybreaker’s shield formations ferociously. October Rain was leading a bunch of assassins, archers and mages against the ambushers hiding inside the forests on both sides of the mountain ranges as well.

Pa!

October Rain’s toes brushed lightly against the ground as she dashed across the forest like a colorful butterfly. After executing a Skypiercer + Spiraling Arrow Blade combo, she targeted a Vietnamese shielder and instakilled him with Bone Eroding Arrow. Behind her, the archers of Warsky Alliance Far Shot their skills into the foliage before them and turned the floor into a sea of blood.

"Hold!"

A Level 212 magic knight pursed his lips tightly as he declared, "The Chinese think they can slip past our defense through the forest? They will not succeed! Shielders, make sure your defense is as solid as it can be! Priests, heal your tanks well and don’t give the enemy a chance to capitalize on your mistake! Our allies from Sunset City, Chariot City and Cyan Earth City are coming to reinforce us already. Hot Sand City will always belong to the Vietnamese!"

However, a red light flashed behind the magic knight right as he said the last word. By the time he realized he was ambushed, the stun had already taken effect, and a dagger drew a red line between his neck.

The assassin in black leather armor backed away from the dead party leader casually dodged the shielders’ attempts to hit him with Barrier Breaks as he ran along an S-shaped path. The smiling man was none other than Farewell Song, of course. A pair of bloody wings erupted behind his back, and a sinister, beast-like energy appeared around his dagger. He swung his weapon and cried, "Qiong Qi Break!"

Boom!

The energy blade flashed across a group of half-health shielders and killed them all. Qiong Qi Break was an S Rank Ancient Divine Skill with pretty good Attack. It was nothing impressive, but it was still better than nothing. Warsky, October Rain and Laughing At The Heavens certainly wouldn’t mind trading places with him if possible.

……

At this point, the canyon had turned into Warsky Alliance’s stage. They were able to go up against The Storm and Daybreaker without falling into a disadvantage at all.

Crack!

I commented after cutting down a magic knight from The Storm with a basic attack, "Farewell Song’s Attack is pretty impressive…"

Li Chengfeng said, "Are we just going to watch and do nothing? This is a good chance to show off your Ancient Divine Skill, right? Don’t tell me you’re not gunning for the MVP this time?"

I waved my hand. "Of course I am. I’m only Level 211 right now, and the MVP reward includes level reward. There’s no way I’m handing it to anyone without a fight."

Chaos Moon said while staring at my equipment, "Now that I think about it, at least half of your equipped items are MVP rewards. Other players participate in Nation War to make some cash, but you participate in Nation Wars to get equipment…"

High Fighting Spirits and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun were growing restless as well. They asked, "When can we begin our assault, boss? Time is money…"

I gazed into the distance before replying, "I think the Vietnamese will falter in an hour tops. When that happens, we’ll act and land the final blow!"

"Okay!"

……

However, it turned out that I had miscalculated our opponent’s strength. The Storm and Daybreaker couldn’t even hold for another half an hour. Warsky Alliance had brought almost 900k players on this invasion, and almost half of them—400k to be precise—were super elites such as the Qiu Beast Cavalry. Thanks to Warsky’s leadership, they were able to slaughter the enemy like they were air. More importantly, Hot Sand City didn’t possess a single Heavenly River Realm player, while Warsky Alliance was supported by Soul Battle Robes and Song of Ice and Fire. His Ancient Divine Skill, Gonggong’s Furious Strike, slayed countless enemies in the mountain range.

It cost 10 Divine Energy Points to use an Ancient Divine Skill, and the player must activate Heavenly River Transformation before they could use it. This meant that casting an Ancient Divine Skill cost 20 Divine Energy Points at minimum. Therefore, only a player with an extraordinary amount of DPS would be able to use it continuously. Even I made sure to use Xuanyuan Slash only once every 20 to 30 minutes, and I never allowed my Divine Energy Points to fall below 100 points. I didn’t want to be caught with my pants down if something unexpected happened.

……

When all I saw at the center of the canyon were corpses and routing Vietnamese players, I raised my weapon and shouted, "Now is the time to charge through Hot Sand Forest and conquer the main city, brothers and sisters!"

Everyone raised their weapons looking as excited as a kitten. They had all been waiting for this moment.

The Dragonlight Cavalry attacked a weak point in the enemy’s defense line and easily widened it into an unbridgeable gap. Soon, our army had moved past Hot Sand Forest and entered the domain of Hot Sand City. Dozens of Chinese guilds were following closely behind us as well. On the Nation War interface, the number of Chinese players quickly climbed to 10 million, but the number of Vietnamese players was less than 5 million. It was clear who had the number advantage here.

We didn’t meet much resistance along the way. Thirty minutes later, we arrived and saw Zhang Chun and his almost 4 million players surrounding Hot Sand City. The man was currently commanding his players to climb the cloud ladders and put pressure on the enemy. Despite outnumbering the enemy almost 2 to 1, they weren’t able to take the main city quickly because Hot Sand City was ultimately a tier 1 city. The fortified defense and rows of arrow towers just for show after all. The rate at which his players were dying also greatly exceeded Zhang Chun’s expectations.

"Uncle!" I called out to him from afar.

Zhang Chun immediately walked up to me with an entourage of guild leaders. He said with a smile, "Finally! Congratulations on retaking Wind City, by the way! We’ll have to celebrate this some time!"

"Nah, retaking a city we lost is hardly deserving of a celebration. Conquering Hot Sand City though, now that’s a different story!"

"True!"

……

It was at this moment Candlelight Shadow showed up with a frown on his face, "You haven’t taken the city yet, Zhang Chun? You boasted to me that you were going to do it in under three hours…"

Zhang Chun replied sheepishly, "Well, many of the Vietnamese players defending Wind City had teleported back to Hot Sand City after you guys took it, and both Chariot City and Sunset City had sent quite the amount of reinforcements. Also, did you notice their arrow towers? Those damn things hadn’t even suffered a scratch until now. But yeah, this one’s on me. I miscalculated."

Blue Sky Scar grinned. "He’s right, Candlelight. Plus, everyone knows that Hot and Sour Noodles’s strength lies in defense, not offense. In the end, it’s up to Candle Dragon, Ancient Sword, Snowy Cathaya and Warsky Alliance to attack a city…"

Hot and Sour Noodles nodded before saying with a straight face, "One more truth from you, and I’m kicking your ass!"

Blue Sky Scar shuddered at that.

Candlelight Shadow moved on to the next question, "Well, we’re here now. How do you plan to finish this, Zhang Chun? I don’t want to deject you, but if you keep this up our side is probably going to suffer some huge losses before we even run into the main forces of the USA server. Neither Titan City nor Hero City’s best guilds have made a move yet, and Cyan Earth City is holding their 40 million troops for an opportune time, which can be anytime…"

Zhang Chun replied, "You’re right. That’s why our best chance is to occupy the city before their reinforcements hit us!"

……

While the discussion was going on, I leaned on my Ancient Divine Dragon’s neck and stayed silent.

Stranger of Three Lifetimes noticed something amiss and asked me, "Why are you keeping silent, Lu Chen? Do you think that the chief of the CGL committee’s conclusion is incorrect?"

I smiled in amusement. "I wouldn’t dare!"

Hot and Sour Noodles rolled his eyes at me. "Bah, I only need to look at your smile to know that you disagree with my plan. So? Care to share with us your thoughts?"

He Yi and Lin Yixin also urged me, "Come on, tell us…"

I smiled again before explaining myself, "Let me put it this way, uncle. Assuming that everything goes well, and we manage to conquer Hot Sand City by force before the enemy’s reinforcements show up, we will still be incredibly disadvantaged. For starters, all the arrow towers in Hot Sand City would’ve been destroyed. A wall or two may have to be destroyed for us to get inside, which makes defending the city much harder than it should’ve been. Battered and exhausted as we are, do you really think we stand a chance when Cyan Earth City and Hero City’s forces show up? It’ll be like taking candy from a child."

"What do we do then?" Candlelight Shadow, Hot and Sour Noodles and Warsky asked the same question at nearly the same time. They were all desperate for a victory to raise their troops’ morale.

I rose to my feet and narrowed my eyes. "Instead of racing against time and trying to conquer the city by force, I suggest that we set up a trap. We’ll leave the siege to Mad Dragon, Flower Room, Pop Culture and the rest of the second-rate guilds while the first-rate guilds hide in the forests outside the city. We’ll seize all the favorable terrains in the area and kill any and all reinforcements who try to come to the aid of Hot Sand City. Once all the enemy has no more troops, the city will naturally fall into our possession. There are still 48 hours left on the clock. We can absolutely afford to draw this out!"

"In short, you want us to surround Hot Sand City and attack all the reinforcements who come to their aid…" Warsky licked his lips. "Kill All strategy again, Lu Chen? Your ideas are always so monstrous…"

However, Hot and Sour Noodles broke into a smile. "Sometimes, that’s what it takes to break the enemy. It’s a good plan. Very well, we’ll do as you say!"

Candlelight Shadow also nodded. "Okay, Candle Dragon, Warsky Alliance, Hall of Immortality and the rest of us will lie in hiding at the west mountain range then. The Americans have to pass through that entrance if they wish to save Hot Sand City!"

Lin Yixin also said, "In that case, Little Cheat and I will focus on ambushing Cyan Earth City. Uncle Zhang Chun can stay here and continue conducting the siege—"

……

It was at this moment a cavalryman galloped to us like the wind before dismounting in front of Hot and Sour Noodles. He said with an ashen expression, "They’re here! Almost all of Cyan Earth City’s Nation Guardian is coming to save Hot Sand City! They’ll be arriving at Hot Sand Forest in half an hour at most!"

Chiang!

I unsheathed the Chill of the Nine Provinces. "Perfect timing. It’s time to score some contribution points, brothers and sisters!"