I tried shooting God Binding Art at his back, but it only resulted in a MISS. I should’ve known that the proud owner of an Ancient Divine Skill wouldn’t be this easy to kill. Judging from the way he dodged my God Binding Art, his control was almost at super-tier. I kept my gaze locked onto Soul Slayer’s back and tried cutting my way toward him as fast as I could, but it was like a boat trying to make its way across a stormy sea. I could fly into the air and drop down on him, but that would make me vulnerable to Shock Arrows and God Devil Breaks. Not even a super god-tier player like me could handle a dozen or so God Devil Breaks smashing into my face at the same time.

Li Chengfeng shouted in my direction while cutting down his own enemies, "Just ignore him for now, Lu Chen! That one’s a cunning bastard, but it’s not worth losing you for him! You are the soul of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and a pillar of the China server! You’re not allowed to die!"

"Got it!"

I nodded heavily before ordering, "All frontliners, if you haven’t done it yet, use a HP card to buff yourself like I said earlier and keep your eyes open for Soul Slayer’s Odin Slash!"

"Yessir!"

A group of Dragonlight Cavalry used a Roland Bloodknight Card and increased their max HP by 40% immediately. The bards had already buffed their max HP by 50% earlier, so with a bit of luck they might just be able to survive one Odin Slash. On a related note, players with percentage-based damage reduction would have a much better chance at surviving the skill. Ancient Divine Skills ignored and pierced a lot of things, but damage reduction wasn’t one of them. If someone could gather a set of equipment that totaled up to around 30% damage reduction, then Soul Slayer would definitely not be able to one-shot them with Odin Slash. In fact, that might very well be the direction most frontliners would be steering toward when grinding their gear in the future.

There was no such thing as a perfect strategy. There would always be a new counter, a counter to that counter and so on. In this case, only the smartest ones would be able to stay on top of everything.

……

Fierce raged the tempest of the battlefield [1]. I didn’t hesitate to execute my skills the second they came off cooldown and was able to penetrate a dozen or so meters deep into Blood Soul’s battle line. Once I judged that I was deep enough, I abruptly pointed the back side of Chill of the Nine Provinces’ blade toward the sky. As the three vortices of death on it spun rapidly and made a shrill noise, beams of red light dropped down on every player within 1000 yards of me, reducing their HP by 50%. Those who were below 50% HP were one-shot instantly![2]

1000 yards was such a ridiculous range that even I couldn’t help but pity my opponents. The ancient property affected every Blood Soul player within a 1000-yard radius and boosted my contribution points considerably. Some below-half-health players never even knew what hit them before they dropped to their knees and exploded into equipment and potions.

Gui Guzi couldn’t help but laugh. "Well done, Boss Broken Halberd! Just keep using your Death skill and leave the healing to my Shennong Tastes Grass!"

"Yeah!" I nodded heavily while making a finger seal and dropping Myriad Swords Obliteration on a group of enemies. The half-health magic knights screamed in pain as the storm of swords pierced their armors and nailed them to the ground.

Chill of the Nine Provinces was the manifestation of the Heavenly Divine Armament, the Xuanyuan Sword. Although it was categorized as an Ancient Divine Armament, it really possessed the power of a Heavenly Divine Armament. For example, the Xuanyuan Art was absolutely obnoxious for the enemy. On paper, it seemed like the ability to reduce enemies HP by 50% of their max HP wasn’t as good as Shennong Tastes Grass’ ability to heal 75% of ally HP within 1000 yards. In reality, losing massive amounts of HP was far more demoralizing than watching the enemy healing for a crazy amount of HP, which was a common sight on a large battlefield like this anyway. Most importantly, the Xuanyuan Art had a 6-minute cooldown and didn’t cost and Divine Energy Points to cast. I could spam it as long as I had the MP, which I did since my full set of Divine Armaments and Sacred Armaments gave me a lot of Intelligence. A single Magic Consumable was almost enough for me to regenerate to full MP.[3]

The Scarlet Blade Cavalry turned out to be stronger than expected. They knew how to form small groups of three or fives to instakill single Dragonlight or Zephyr Cavalrymen with Barrier Breaks. Of course, the Dragonlight Cavalry returned the favor by doing the exact same thing, except that they executed a greater Triple Slash + Barrier Break combo. As a result, the enemy lost far more troops than we did.

Boom boom boom!

Firewall spells burned across the entire battle line, so players had to fight each other within a sea of flames. It only made their blood boil hotter though. The super-tier experts of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Snowy Cathaya especially galloped back and forth and did their damndest to accrue as many contribution points as possible. After war, rewards were distributed based on both sides’ contribution points. The more enemies we killed, the better the experience and equipment reward our entire server would get. We were earning contribution points not just for ourselves, but for everyone as well.

Li Chengfeng was the most ferocious fighter of all of us in this battle. He galloped back and forth across the frontline and rained his unique dragon warrior skills on the enemy such as Dragonbone Flurry, Reverse Scale Slash and more without pause. Death and devastation followed him everywhere especially because he was accompanied by our two Ancient Divine Skill wonders, Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust and a hundred Dragonlight Cavalrymen or so. They stuck to him like a satellite protecting its planet.

"Yo, why are you two following me non-stop?" Li Chengfeng looked back and asked the girls when his curiosity finally got the better of him.

Heaven’s Rain giggled and said, "Big brother Lu Chen doesn’t want you to lose any level in this Nation War because you still have to enter the Sky Vortex and search for your SS Rank Ancient Divine Skill later, lord corps commander. That’s why he ordered me and Little Dust to protect you even at the cost of our own life…"

Li Chengfeng pouted. "Come on, I gotta be one of the last people in our guild to need protection. By the way… what did you call me just now?"

"Lord corps commander?"

Li Chengfeng sucked in a deep breath as if he had just heard the most wonderful thing in the world. "Can you call me that one more time?"

"Uhh… lord corps commander…"

"Ah, you’re such a good girl, Little Rain…"

Heaven’s Rain: "..."

……

BOOM!

Suddenly, the bloody image of the chief god Odin appeared beneath the night sky. Soul Slayer had found yet another opportunity to unleash his Ancient Divine Skill against a square formation of players, killing at least 300 Zephyr and Kui Dragon Cavalrymen in one strike. SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skills were just that unreasonable. Right now, no one had the power to stop him.

A sinister smile danced on Soul Slayer’s lips as he pulled back to safety. He purposely avoided the nearby Lin Yixin, Purple Marquis and Gui Guzi and sought for a different angle to attack our players. He was a smart man alright. He was the reason Blood Soul was able to charge bravely toward us.

"Ceh!"

Gui Guzi cursed out loud after stabbing two Scarlet Blade Cavalrymen with his Spear of the Knight God. "That shameless coward! Is ambushing our non-Divine Generals the only thing he can do? He even took out my two disciples! I’m going to murder his ass the second I get the chance to do so!"

I looked back. "Huh? Since when do you have disciples, Little Gui?"

Beiming Xue giggled. "You didn’t know, big brother? They’re both 18-year-old beauties and a part of the Dragonlight Cavalry!"

I exclaimed enviously, "Wow! Not bad at all, Little Gui…"

Gui Guzi blushed. "It’s nothing. They wanted to be my disciples, and I just wanted to teach them some basic PvP skills."

I replied in a serious tone, "You don’t have to explain yourself to me. In fact, you don’t need to explain your life to anyone. What you explain is what you hide, and what you hide is truth. So anyway, do you plan to date them both?"

He stuttered. Love was such a thing that even the bravest youngster couldn’t help but balk before it.

Beside me, an angelic-looking Lin Yixin shot me a look and said, "You think everyone’s the same as you, you shameless bastard?"

Purple Marquis echoed in agreement. "Yeah, so shameless!"

Gui Guzi clenched his fists and replied, "I don’t think it’s impossible, Boss Broken Halberd!"

Everyone: "..."

……

Despite our teasing, Gui Guzi was actually a fairly handsome lad and a gaming professional. Naturally, he was pursued by countless women both inside and outside the game. Some wanted a relationship, and some wanted to warm his bed, so to speak. Idolism was a thing for both genders after all. Since Gui Guzi had never been in a relationship before, he was currently stuck in that mire of bliss and didn’t look like he was going to escape any time soon.

Li Chengfeng would’ve been in the same situation as Gui Guzi if not for his own personal issues. Although he looked like a fairly carefree person in the guild especially when he was interacting with Chaos Moon, Diamond Dust and Heaven’s Rain, he never truly opened his heart to any of them, and we all knew it. It was like his heart was sealed behind a locked door, and only that girl in the past had the key to it.

There was nothing we could do about it except pray that time could wash away all sorrows. As his brother, I could only hope that he would be able to walk out of his shadows one day.

……

The battle lasted almost four hours, and nearly the entire forest was dyed red in blood. I must admit that the forces of Sunset City were no joke, and neither Blood Soul nor God Breaker looked demoralized in the slightest despite the massive resistance our forces put up. Finally, when their player count dwindled to an untenable level, Soul Slayer abruptly swung his sword and shouted, "Looks like we can’t settle the score here, so it’s time to withdraw! If we keep this up, there won’t be anyone left to defend our main city!"

According to the Nation War interface, of the 5 million players Soul Slayer had brought to this battlefield, less than 500k were still alive. That was over 90% of his troops dead in this battle. It was hardly a massive victory for us, however. Our own numbers had dwindled so much that Ancient Sword, Snowy Cathaya, The Monarch Descends, Blazing Hot Lips and more guilds combined didn’t even amount to 2 million players. This was at best a pyrrhic victory for us.

Soul Slayer had done everything in his power to turn the tides of this battle in his favor. He had unleashed 15 Odin Slashes throughout the battle and used up all of his Divine Energy Points, and no one was able to stop him. The SS Rank Ancient Divine skill owner, Shabby Castle, also used up all of his Divine Energy Points to heal his troops for 60% of their HP with Freya’s Kiss 15 times in total. He too withdrew as Soul Slayer commanded.

……

"Don’t let them get away! Kill them to the last man!" I shouted.

Li Chengfeng gladly received the order and charged.

Soul Slayer and Shabby Castle barked orders again and again as they organized the retreat of their remaining army. Unfortunately, a large majority of them were engaged in combat and couldn’t use their return scrolls.

Suddenly, a beautiful figure wearing a tiger-like symbol on her shoulder and wielding the Seven Star Veluriyam Sword raced out of the darkened forest. She was Lin Yixin of course. She, Purple Marquis, Nangong Lexi and about 100k elites blocked the exit before she activated Heavenly River Transformation again. She smiled as the sword shadows of Gan Jiang and Mo Ye appeared beneath her feet. "You lot aren’t getting away this easily!"

When did Lin Yixin and her troops circle to the enemy’s rear, and how? It didn’t matter. What mattered was that her brilliant maneuver had sealed the fates of Sunset City’s army!

1. T/N: borrowing a line from a poem I read

2. Thus confirming that it’s not like Well of the Abyss from Beiming Xue. It takes 50% of opponent’s MAX HP, not CURRENT HP.

3. I’m drawing blanks. If one Magic Consumable is enough, he shouldn’t have much MP. And Xuanyuan Art requires 100% MP, right? That means it doesn’t matter how high his MP/Intelligence is