Purple Marquis carefully placed a glass of pickled plum juice in front of Shadow Chanel before saying, "Drink this. It’ll improve your appetite…"

Shadow Chanel shot the juice a glance before replying, "I’m trying to lose weight recently, so I don’t want to eat too much."

Purple Marquis said concernedly, "Even so, you need to eat something…"

I asked in a confused tone, "Why are you trying to lose weight in the first place? You’re not fat at all."

Sun Qingqing teased, "You see that? This is why Lu Chen is more popular with girls than you are. How do you expect to win a girl’s heart when you don’t even learn to say the right things?"

Purple Marquis immediately turned red and said, "I’m not…"

"Not, what?"

The guy looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole and hide, so I hurriedly changed the topic for him. "Oh right, our characters are parked at Hot Sand Forest, right? How is the war going? I was rushing, so I didn’t check before I came here."

Lin Yixin sipped her own pickled plum juice before replying, "Long story short, it’s still ongoing…"

"What about the short story long?"

"Vienna’s Sorrow and 9 million players from Hero City are locked in a stalemate with the Chaotic 27 and the Chinese guilds defending Seven Star City. The man’s completely stuck between a rock and a hard place now. He lacked the strength to conquer Seven Star City outright, and he couldn’t spare the forces to rescue Hot Sand City either. Also, Candlelight Shadow, Warsky, Song of Ice and Fire and the others had gathered over ten million players after their victories last night, and they pose such a threat that Vienna’s Sorrow must be prepared to withdraw back to his two main cities at any moment."

She smiled a bit before continuing, "As for our front, we are offline, but a ton of middle to small guilds have taken over temporarily to do battle against small pockets of Elephant City and Cyan City players at Hot Sand Forest. On the other side, A Snowy Night Below 30 Degrees is leading Frostsword City and Iron Horse City to attack Elephant City with everything they’ve got. However, Flowing Cloud is the acting commander of the Indian forces, and she’s got a constant stream of reinforcements. It shouldn’t be an issue for her to hold Elephant City. The same goes for Swallow Ear Canton, which is currently under attack of the three southeast cities. Red Maple should be able to hold it with the reinforcements from Cyan Earth City."

I put down my chopsticks and said smilingly, "Sounds like everything is progressing as I predicted it would. It won’t be long before the alliance between the Northern Alliance, India and Japan shatters under the pressure very soon."

"What are we going to do next, guild leader?" Purple Marquis asked.

Lin Yixin chuckled. "What else? Our main force is still present, and Ancient Sword still has 30k Dragonlight Cavalrymen or so. It would be annoying to end things here, wouldn’t it?"

Purple Marquis looked surprised. "Didn’t we beat the crap out of Cyan Earth City and Sunset City already? How are we going to go about this?"

Lin Yixin looked at me then. "You should ask Lu Chen that question…"

Everyone glanced toward me at the same time, so I wet my finger with beer foam and started drawing on the dining table. "This is our current position. Occupying Hot Sand City is just a matter of time now, so instead we should set our sights on the other main cities. Chariot City, Sunset City and Burning City are all potential targets, but let’s talk about the obvious target first. Sunset City is a must-take since we’ve killed off all of their elites. However, the city is pretty far away, and the Koreans and Germans will reach their ally long before we can blitz the city. What this means is that we need someone to feint an attack on Chariot City and Burning City and make it look convincing."

"That’s easy. Just leave it to Mad Dragon, Flower Room and Gods of Destruction!" He Yi replied.

"Yes," I said with an approving nod, "that was my idea as well. What these guilds lack in quality, they make up for in quantity. They should be able to muster a large enough force to keep both cities in check regardless of their actual effectiveness. That being said, we need to spare some troops for the feint so that the enemy won’t see through our ploy. After that, the true elites—the Dragonlight Cavalry, Dragonlight Archer, Kui Dragon Cavalry and so on—and all our Ancient Divine Skill owners will ride to Sunset City, breach their gates, cut off their regent’s head and claim it for ourselves, hehe!"

Purple Marquis grew excited. "Does this mean we may be able to expand our domain to the north and increase our number of main cities to five after this war? That’s awesome!"

I snickered but didn’t answer him.

Lin Yixin gave my arm a tug beneath the table before asking, "What’s that snicker for?"

I whispered, "Nah, I was just thinking that Purple Marquis is too, how should I put it, idealistic. We don’t have nearly enough manpower or allies to hold five main cities, especially since Hot Sand City and Sunset City are located at the heart of the Northern Alliance’s territories. Therefore, we need to take this one step at a time and start by widening the fractures in their relationship first. Only then we can begin thinking about solidifying our footing in their territory…"

Lin Yixin smirked. "What evil plan have you concocted now?"

I pursed my lips. "Well, I was thinking about keeping you company after this Nation War is over. It’s been a long time since I hugged you, but there’s too many people right now, and Eve will punch me…"

Lin Yixin let out a giggle as she taunted, "I won’t mind if you hug or kiss me. The only one’s stopping you now is yourself…"

Me: "..."

……

It was 2 pm by the time we finished lunch. I would’ve liked to spend more time with Beauty Lin, but Chaos Moon, Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi and Du Thirteen had called me 11 times in total during this time. In the end, I gave in and hurried back to the workshop to finish the Nation War.

I drank a bit of water before I put on my gaming helmet. Then, I logged back into the game!

Swhoosh!

My vision brightened, and I summoned the Ancient Divine Dragon and Phantom Wolf King after poking my head out of my tent. A lot of Chinese players and the Dragonlight Cavalry, Dragonlight Archers and Zephyr Cavalry were standing by already. The rest of the girls came online one after another as well. Another great battle was soon to begin.

……

"Lu Chen, over here!" He Yi called out to me from afar.

As I ran over to her, I entered a large clearing where countless Chinese players were shuffling about. Most of them were guild leaders including the likes of Wang Dongliang, Dominating Heaven Blade, Roaming Dragon, Li Le and more. In total, nearly ten million players had gathered at this place while I was enjoying some lovey dovey time with my beloveds. We really have way too many players.

"Lu Chen!"

Roaming Dragon rode up to me and looked down on me from his mount. "You made us wait for almost 2 hours! Who do you think you are?"

Surprised by his outburst, I shrugged and replied, "I was eating lunch with my girlfriend. Not my fault you can’t work around my schedule."

Roaming Dragon nearly choked. "You think you’re the only one who has a girlfriend? We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t need you to inform us of the next step of the war strategy!"

Wang Dongliang looked He Yi up and down while speaking in a jealous tone, "Seriously, you may be the Little Heavenly King, but to make everyone wait for you for 2 hours is just rude as hell."

I noticed his gaze, so I smiled and pulled He Yi into a hug before saying, "You’re just jealous that my girlfriend is gorgeous."

"Bullshit, my—" Wang Dongliang tried to say something while pointing at the beautiful archer standing next to him. Unfortunately for him, she was a 6 out of 10 at best.

Little Piglet immediately shuffled closer to his boss and said in a hushed voice, "Give it up, boss. You can’t deny that this ‘girlfriend’ you hooked up with last night at the bar is leagues behind From Water. Be it in terms of class, looks or body, the difference between them is like heaven and earth. Finally, From Water’s the CEO of an international company, and your girl is just an average black fungus…"

Wang Dongliang’s complexion turned purple. "Little Piglet you asshole…"

The Cold Wind Swordsman shrugged with a grin. "It’s not a sin to be honest, is it?"

……

"Ahem!"

It was at this moment Dominating Heaven Blade walked up to us and said, "Let’s cut to the chase already, shall we? What’s the plan, Lu Chen?"

I nodded at him before starting, "Hegemon Palace and Gods of Destruction, you will lead an army of 3 million each to attack Chariot City. Flower Room and Mad Dragon, you will do the same to Burning City as well. That is all I need you to do. We’ll handle everything else."

Wang Dongliang exclaimed in astonishment, "What? You want me to attack Chariot City with 3 million players? But their forces are practically unharmed! We barely have Ancient Divine Skill owners or Divine Generals either. There’s no way we can beat them."

I smiled reassuringly at him. "Relax, it’s just a feint! You don’t actually have to attack them!"

Roaming Dragon interjected, "A feint? Doesn’t that make us cannon fodders?"

I shook my head. "Again, all I ask of you is to surround the city. Theoretically, you shouldn’t suffer any damage whatsoever if you don’t attack them. Of course, I won’t stop you from trying to beat them if you think you can, but just the same I ain’t taking responsibility if you lose either. As for the third and main step of the strategy, well, that’s a secret. Anyway, you can go now. Do your best!"

Although Wand Dongliang and Roaming Dragon were displeased with their orders, the only thing they could do was obey. So, they left the canyon and headed toward their respective destinations.

……

"Alright, it’s time for us to depart as well!"

I looked at the players of Ancient Sword, Snowy Cathaya, The Monarch Descends, Purple Lily and more and said with a chuckle, "Unlike them, we are conquerors, so we’re going to conquer a main city, people!"

Xu Yang asked while everyone brimmed with excitement, "Which city are we attacking though?"

Li Chengfeng replied with a chuckle, "What else? It has to be Sunset City!"

I laughed. "That is correct! We’ve taken out both their Ancient Divine Skill owners—Soul Slayer and Shabby Castle—and their main force, so Sunset City may as well be a deserted city right now. All cavalrymen, you will mount up and prepare to ride to Sunset City right now! We will breach the city before they have a chance to prepare and conquer the main city of England!"

Everyone did as I said and took off the second the bards had buffed them. I didn’t mean for them to move this urgently, but oh well.

Next, I looked at Lian Xin and Murong Mingyue and said, "You two will watch over our ranged parties while they make their way to Sunset City. We may need their assistance to hold Sunset City later."

Lian Xin nodded. "Just leave it to us, big brother! Make sure you’ve occupied the city when we arrive, okay?"

"I will!"