"Enter the city!"

I dove into the city at first notice. The first thing I saw was a thousand archers spread out in a fan-shaped formation and pointing their arrows at me!

"Holy shit!"

I withdrew just as quickly, put the Dragon God Shield between my body and their aim and Guarded. Not only that, I punched the ground with my right fist, losing 1000 gold from my bag and causing countless dragons to burst out of the earth. This was the perfect occasion to use a skill like Rise of the Guardian Dragon.

……

Bang bang bang...

Countless scalding hot arrows exploded across my Dragon God Shield. A couple of Dragonlight Cavalrymen had been following right behind me when I charged, and unfortunately they didn’t manage to survive the volley. Even my Battle Astral Wind was shredded, and my HP had dropped by almost 35% at the end of the volley. God damn, that was a painful one!

Gui Guzi ran to my aid as quickly as he could while shouting, "What the fuck are you guys waiting for? Do you want Boss Broken Halberd to die? Go go go!"

The shout successfully broke everyone from their trance and made them take action. Li Chengfeng, He Yi, Lin Yixin, Chaos Moon and more peak experts formed a single line and rushed into the archer party as quickly as they could, killing many with their skills. However, the arrow towers within the city began raining thick steel bolts on our cavalrymen as well.

I pointed a finger at where the teleportation formation was and shouted, "Yiyi, grab some men and take out their teleportation NPCs right now! Eve, Li Chengfeng, you two will destroy those arrow towers! The rest of you, follow me to kill every last player in this city!"

Everyone nodded and started carrying out their orders.

Hooves thundered against the ground as tens of thousands of Chinese cavalrymen flooded the streets like tigers released into a pen. Many of our allies were killed by the arrow towers, but powerful units such as the Dragonlight Cavalry were able to ignore the bombardment and focus their energy on killing the enemy.

"Bad news, Boss Broken Halberd! An NPC legion is coming our way!" Gui Guzi shouted from afar.

I answered, "It’s fine! They’re just Level 255 fiend-rank NPCs! Don’t leave a single one of them alive! Also, get ready to use Shennong Tastes Grass soon!"

"Okay!"

I ran to the center of the square and noted that almost everyone had fallen below 50% HP. There were just too many arrow towers inside the city, and we didn’t have any priest or bard with us right now. Health Potions and War God Recovery alone weren’t enough to outheal the damage at all.

I raised the Chill of the Nine Provinces and pointed the front side of the blade toward the sky. Xuanyuan Art took action, and all the allies within 1000 yards of me regained 50% of their HP. The timing was almost perfect. The moment Gui Guzi, High Fighting Spirits, Li Chengfeng and more had returned to full health, they immediately led a troop of 10000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen against the NPC legion. Magic spells and arrows flew all over the place. Sunset City quickly descended into complete chaos.

I spurred the Ancient Divine Dragon to the sky and took the fight to the other squares. Most of the English had run off to the southern gate since that was where we were attacking from, which made my job of assassinating the teleportation NPCs quite simple. I swooped down on top of one of them, froze him with Thousand Ice Slash, and followed up with Summon the Storm, Rise of the Guardian Dragon, Burning Blade Slash, Universe Break and more. Since the NPC only had 4 million HP, it took me only 2 skill rotations and less than half a minute to kill him. Next!

I kept moving places and killing all the enemies and NPCs I encountered. Ten minutes later, all of the teleportation formations had been destroyed, and Sunset City had become completely isolated. If Chariot City and Burning City had any plan to reinforce Sunset City, that opportunity was now completely gone.

……

After that, I returned to the battlefield and joined the others on fighting the NPC legions. Usually, killing NPCs wouldn’t give any experience or reward whatsoever. In a Nation War though, killing NPC legions gave experience and contribution points. Meanwhile, nearly half an hour after we engaged the enemy, the ranged party led by Beiming Xue, Lian Xin, Stranger of Three Lifetimes, Luo River God of the Capital and more had finally arrived. The rate at which we destroyed the enemy rose exponentially after that.

It only took an hour, but Sunset City was soon to have a new master. Through relentless offense, we were able to annihilate all three of Sunset City’s main legions and plug the entrance to the palace, leaving Blazing Hot Lips and Purple Lily to deal with the remaining resisters. Inside the palace, Beiming Xue, Gui Guzi, Li Chengfeng, High Fighting Spirits, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and more attacked the duke and regent of Sunset City, the boss with all they got. It wasn’t much of a challenge, to be honest.

"Wait…"

I shouted when the boss had fallen to red health, "Let Chengfeng have the last hit on the boss! He will need the level when he enters Sky Vortex later! Also, leave the royal scepter to me. In exchange, you can have my share of the gold and equipment…"

Everyone agreed. The royal scepter was both a boon and a curse because it painted a big fat target on whoever was holding it. Moreover, whoever obtained the royal scepter couldn’t fly, so they could only escape on foot if anything happened.

……

"Ahhh, you damned invaders! The light of the empire will never fade! Just you wait, the day of the apocalypse will be your judgment day!"

After he said his last words, Li Chengfeng deleted the last sliver of his HP with Dragonbone Flurry and dropped him to his knees. As a column of golden light increased his Level to 211, I picked up the blood-red royal scepter from the floor and triggered a system announcement—

Ding~!

System Announcement: Attention all players, player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand" (China) has claimed the royal scepter of Sunset City. They may choose to occupy or abandon the city!

……

The symbol of the royal scepter appeared above my head, but I didn’t rush to make a decision.

The peak experts of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls following behind me, I moved to the walls and watched the sea of NPC legions—these ones were garrisoned somewhere across the map when they received word of the raid and came to their city’s rescue—that were attacking the city. It was a good chance to reap more contribution points, so I ordered everyone to play the defender this time.

I gazed to the horizon with my sword planted gently against the blood-stained walls. The natural cold of the weapon actually froze the surface of the wall—all ten kilometers of them—in ice. The extraordinary scene and the Sunchaser Cloak painted me in a most epic and deadly appearance.

Sitting between an arrow loop and looking back at me, Li Chengfeng asked, "Why are you holding the royal scepter and not using it, Lu Chen? Is it because you don’t want the main city, or are you trying to tease the other servers or something?"

I smiled. "Don’t worry, Chengfeng. I’m waiting for a suitable opportunity. For now, let’s kill the NPC legions and clean out the remaining Sunset City players."

"Yeah."

……

It took another hour or so, but now there were only Chinese players left in Sunset City. There were over 1.9 million of us in total. Objectively speaking, this number of people didn’t amount to much in a Nation War where tens of millions of players were involved. However, every single one of us was an elite, and they were the main reason the China server had been able to sweep all opposition like they didn’t even exist up until this point!

Suddenly, I saw a Snowy Cathaya mounted archer riding toward me. It was Nangong Lexi.

After she arrived at the foot of the wall, Nangong Lexi looked up at Lin Yixin and reported, "Yiyi, I just received word from our scouts that our players surrounding Burning City had been defeated by Tear Stain. Her SS Rank Ancient Divine Skill, Yemaek Slash, was just too strong, and Dominating Heaven Blade and his people just couldn’t hold no matter what they tried. Also, Tear Stain is coming for us with over 2 million Burning City players. They’re probably thinking of retaking Sunset City."

Lin Yixin nodded. "Thanks, Lexi. Now come in already. It’s dangerous outside."

"Okay!"

……

Luo River God of the Capital was the second person after Chengfeng to ask me about the same question. "Lu Chen, why are you just holding the royal scepter and not using it? What on earth are you planning?"

I smiled. "All I’m going to say right now is sit tight and watch, Sister Wang Luo. By the way, can you tell everyone to come inside? Also, don’t engage Tear Stain and the Koreans immediately after they arrive. I wish to negotiate something with Tear Stain. With a bit of luck, we may be able to deal with the Northern Alliance once and for all."

"Oh? Interesting. Very well, we’ll do as you say."

And so, all the reputable players in the China server stood together on the walls and waited patiently for the enemy to arrive.

……

"Do you know what is Sunset City’s richest resource, Chengfeng?" I asked.

Li Chengfeng replied in a surprised tone, "Er, I don’t know. I’ve never really checked."

However, Stranger of Three Lifetimes’ eyes lit up. "I know! It’s wood called ‘Hongming Wood’, a must-have material to forge high-level arrows, especially because it can increase the success rate of Shock Arrow and Mountain Stagger Arrow. Also, I heard that all Level 200 Earth-grade bows or above must be forged using Hongming Wood."

I nodded. "You are completely correct, Momo. However, do you know that the English never utilized this resource properly because they’re too proud, and they think that using a material that artificially boosts the success rate of skills isn’t ‘chivalrous’? As a result, Hongming Wood is completely wasted on them."

Indigo Collar asked, "Since you’re bringing this up, are you planning to take Hongming Wood for ourselves?"

"Nope!"

I shook my head. "For starters, we don’t need this material. We already have an ore in Sky City that does the same thing. Let me give you a hint: Burning City is a domain of sparse resources, and they especially would like to get their hands on rare resources such as Hongming Wood. Some time ago, I heard a rumor that Tear Stain had tried to borrow Hongming Wood from Sunset City only to be rejected. Unwilling to give up, she actually snuck into Sunset Forest with a small party in the hopes of stealing some Hongming Wood, but was ultimately caught red-handed…"

"Holy shit!"

Li Chengfeng slapped his thighs in sudden realization. "I think I know what you’re planning now, Lu Chen! You’re so bad, hahaha…"

I guffawed. "Whatever do you mean? I’m just giving Tear Stain what she wants, hehe. Anyway, the Koreans are an ambitious bunch, and Tear Stain is even more so. There is no chance she would let this opportunity slip past her fingers."

……

A while later, Pure Love pointed to the distance and said, "Vice guild leader, Burning City has arrived!"

As she said, a tidal wave of cavalrymen started flooding in from the mountains. Leading them was none other than a wary-looking Tear Stain riding on a red warhorse. I knew she would come.