Countless attacks such as Li Chengfeng’s Dragonbone Flurry and my Burning Blade Slash hit Fire Axe Hogg at nearly the same time, eliciting loud howls of pain and damaging its armor. The boss raised its head and roared in fury, but eight purple arrows hit it beneath the jaw and deleted another huge chunk of its HP.

Crack!

Whirlwind passed through the boss's neck. Even He Yi had learned to attack its weakness, and her damage was amplified by the fact that she was riding the Snow Domain Windchaser. Suddenly, one of her attacks triggered another Hurricane and caused a cyclone of energy to surround the boss. Naturally, Fire Axe Hogg took the full brunt of the skill!

11098!

10733!

11542!

……

Everyone was just too powerful. Those with top-tier skill and equipment especially could deal over ten thousand damage. At this point the game had entered the era where it was normal to see five-digit damage numbers even in PvP battles, and any fighter who didn’t have at least ten thousand HP would find their lives much more difficult due to the constant fear of being one-shot.

Mages were protected by their Magic Shields, priests were protected by their Spell Shields and party members, and archers could kite opponents with their Leap. As usual, every class had their own way of surviving a deadly situation.

Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was famous for their powerful offensives, and we proved ourselves again by deleting the Level 143 Purple Gold Rank boss's HP in less than five minutes!

Pu!

High Fighting Spirits’ battle axe abruptly shone brightly and launched an energy attack at the boss's head. He had triggered a passive skill, and it was just enough to delete the boss's last sliver of HP!

Ding~!

System Announcement: Player "High Fighting Spirits" has killed Fire Axe Hogg. 5000 points and 1 Luck are awarded to the player!

……

Awesome, High Fighting Spirits got lucky and scored the final hit on the boss. He was rewarded with 1 precious Luck for his efforts.

The boss dropped a bunch of equipment, but I didn’t even look at them. I simply asked Li Chengfeng to pick up the loot, gathered the best equipment we had picked up so far and sent Xu Yang back to Dark Moon City to store them in the warehouse for now. It would be a shame if we dropped these items because we were killed in action.

So far, the highest-grade equipment we had collected was Outstanding Purple Gold–grade. It was very valuable, and we made sure to price it as such in the guild warehouse. This way, our players would be motivated to accumulate as many contribution points as possible in order to exchange for the equipment. We made Xu Yang the carrier because there were only a few people we trusted to deliver these items to the guild warehouse, and he was one of them. His DPS didn’t matter anyway, so he was the perfect candidate for this.

……

By now, the battlefield surrounding Sky City was a complete mess. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ formation and teamwork were almost perfect, so we had suffered almost no damage thus far. The mobs never got a chance to make contact with our backliners, and our frontliners were more than tough enough to withstand their attack.

The other guilds weren’t nearly as lucky, however, especially the solo players and smaller guilds. Those without a complete strategy or formation were simply incapable of fighting the Level 143 elites. The Barbaric Battle Souls had punched holes in their defense lines and were ravaging their backline with their blade arms.

I checked the system interface. There were over forty million players at the start of the war, but now that number had dropped drastically to around ten million. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls might have lost no one, but the same couldn’t be said for other players. In fact, one might say that the player faction of Sky City had suffered huge losses after five monster waves.

I checked our surroundings for a bit before giving Gui Guzi an order. "Gui Guzi, run around with the Fire Blade Cavalry for a bit and help out the comrades of Sky City, will you? But you must come back the moment you hear the notice for the sixth wave. Everyone else, stay where you are and don’t break the formation!"

"Got it, boss!"

Gui Guzi addressed He Yi as "guild leader", but me as "boss”. Clearly, he still thought himself as a core member of Bloody Mercenaries to this day. He was a "fool" whose loyalty wouldn’t waver the moment he acknowledged someone. Nowadays, it was an extremely precious trait.

Gui Guzi left with the Fire Blade Cavalry. A thought later, I turned around to face He Yi. "Eve, why don’t you go ahead and grind some mobs yourself? The sooner you hit Level 120, the better…"

"Mn."

He Yi nodded, urged her mount and dashed into the sea of mobs like a flash of snow. He Yi was able to slaughter the Barbaric Battle Souls like ants, but the Barbaric Battle Souls couldn’t even do three-digit damage to her. He Yi’s Defense was already amazing, but Royal Road also boosted her Defense and HP by 30%. It was no wonder she could facetank the damage without any healing.

A couple of minutes later, a column of golden light surrounded He Yi as she leveled up. As expected, He Yi was an absolute powerhouse in this war, and her Green Wave Slash and Hurricane played a critical role in her success. No one could underestimate our guild leader anymore.

It was at this moment Li Chengfeng walked up to me. "Lu Chen, do you know that Vanished God City and Wind City are experiencing a war quest as well?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I read it in the official forums earlier. Wind City had rallied all their troops to attack a fortress of the Night Creatures called ‘Blaze Fortress’. It was apparently guarded by a super boss. As for Vanished God City, a war had broken out at the borders, and Stranger of Three Lifetimes, Predestined, and Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties were all fighting there. Every China server is bustling with activity right now…"

"Hehe, everyone’s doing their best to earn as much experience and equipment as possible. We have to do our best as well, right?"

"Of course~"

……

It wasn’t long before a ding resounded across Sky City—

Ding~!

System Announcement: All players, the sixth monster wave led by a Level 145 Spirit Rank boss, Bies the Giant Storm Beast, has crossed the spatial bridge created using the Purgatory Dragon Scepter!

……

Li Chengfeng and I exchanged a look with each other. The sixth monster wave had arrived, and the boss was a Level 145 Spirit Rank boss! The real challenge had finally begun!

"Gui Guzi, Eve, come back now!" I shouted inside the guild channel.

He Yi turned her mount around and rushed back toward us. Gui Guzi and the Fire Blade Cavalry were also making their way back. The locals could deal with the stragglers themselves.

The light screen created by the Purgatory Dragon Scepter shook for a moment, and circular holes appeared all over the place. Very soon, gigantic, sinister-looking creatures leaped out of the portals and landed heavily on the ground. Their thorny armor made it clear that they had high Defense and HP. Their legs were incredibly short—it almost looked like they were wriggling on the floor—but their powerful arms spoke a different story. They definitely couldn’t be underestimated!

When the first mob came within scan distance, I locked onto it and read its stats—

Giant Purgatory Beast (Shadow)

Level: 145

Attack: 1650~1820

Defense: 2050

HP: 130000

Skills: Shatter, Crush, Sweep

Introduction: A giant beast from hell. These berserk and mindless animals possess enormous strength. Their tough, steely armor earned them the nickname "Steel Fortress", and their role can’t be understated, be it in major or minor wars. They are deeply hated by the warriors of the Silver Moon Alliance.

……

"Finally, our opponents are Level 145 shadow-rank mobs. The true battle has just begun…" I sucked in a deep breath. The first five waves were just the appetizer and a test of sorts. Its purpose was to weed out the thirty million low to middle–level players, leaving behind ten million or so true elites to defend against the remaining five waves.

Gui Guzi growled from the frontline. "Tighten the defense and make sure there aren’t any holes between our defense lines and those of Snowy Cathaya and The Monarch Descends! Frontliners, do not retreat even if it costs you your life! Backliners, do not fall behind in terms of damage and healing! The time to earn experience is now!"

The thick swarm of gigantic monsters started surging toward us. Everyone knew how much experience a Level 145 shadow-rank mob could yield, and every kill netted some contribution points. Even if their total points weren’t high enough to make it on the ranking list, they could still obtain EXP reward based on their contribution points after the war was over. Therefore, this was a win-win situation no matter how you cut it!

I, Li Chengfeng, High Fighting Spirits, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon, He Yi and the others waited tensely as the mobs moved toward us. At the back, Beiming Xue, Moonlight Stone and the others were already shooting arrows and magic into the horde!

Boom boom boom!

Explosions filled the battlefield for a time, but this time the bombardment didn’t do as much damage as before. The Giant Purgatory Beasts had over 2000 Defense, so many archers suddenly found themselves incapable of breaking the mobs’ Defense. Many people were disturbed by this, and the failure further emphasized the huge gap of quality between the fifth and sixth monster wave, one that might just be deadly enough to kill us!

I steadied my footing. My Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf pounced forward to tear the mobs with its tooths and claws, and I kicked off with a Burning Blade Slash. Although the Giant Purgatory Beasts had over 2000 Defense, this number was about as good as paper before my Attack. Burning Blade Slash grew stronger with each hit, and the last hit dealt over 12k damage to the mob. Adding splash damage into the total, and the dozen or so Giant Purgatory Beasts I had hit were left with only a sliver of health!

After that, all I needed to do was stomp the ground using War Crush to one-shot them all. It was the season of farming, and I wasn’t nearly kind enough to surrender my experience to the others. No way in hell I was going to let people reap the profits of my hard work...

……

Bang bang bang!

Sparks flew everywhere as the Giant Purgatory Beasts rammed into our players’ metal armors and shields. Chaos Moon and High Fighting Spirits had just enough Strength to prevent themselves from getting knocked back more than a step or two, but the players of the smaller, more casual guilds fared much, much worse. A large majority of warriors were sent skidding a dozen or so steps, their party formation greatly disrupted as a result. Some of the weaker ones were even sent flying into the air. It was a terrible sight to say the least.