I opened the map. There were two ways the players of Vanished God City could use to travel to Dark Moon City. The first way was to travel on foot and march all the way here from the north. However, the path was riddled with all kinds of monsters, with levels ranging between 160 and 200. Unless they were mind-bogglingly stupid, they wouldn’t take this path. The other way was to get a teleportation scroll to Sky City and march from there. Going via that route required them to cross Cyanstone Valley, a vast leveling map at the foot of the Dragonbone Mountain Range. I made up my mind. I will use this location to set up an ambush.

Both He Yi and Murong Mingyue were very busy right now, so I was responsible for shotcalling the guild. However, I didn’t want to underestimate my opponent, so I discussed the viability of the plan with Li Chengfeng, Beiming Xue, and Xu Yang first. All three of them agreed to the plan. Li Chengfeng offered his own input. "If Hall of Immortality, Throne Seeker and Rose of the Holy Domain won’t change their minds, then there’s no reason for us to give them face, is there? All we need to do is to give them the slap of their life. Bloody Mercenaries and the subguilds will guard the territory. The main guild and its 7000 players will head to Cyanstone Valley and engage the enemy. We may be without our cavalry troops right now, but they don’t scare us one bit!"

"Very well. Xu Yang, give the order!"

"Yessir!"

After Xu Yang barked out the orders, all of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players besides the three-thousand-man cavalry led by Gui Guzi left Dark Moon City and traveled toward Cyanstone Valley. A terrible war would be fought before the day was over!

……

As we marched, we encountered many players who were grinding peacefully. We stuck to the road to avoid disrupting them or cause unnecessary trouble. It was clear that they respected us, however. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was not the pathetic guild it was a long time ago, and today one might even describe it as the sun of Sky City. The only guilds who could still stand against us were Warsky Alliance and Snowy Cathaya.

"What is the objective of this expedition, viceleader?" High Fighting Spirits asked mid-run.

Keeping my eyes at the front, I said, "The objective is to intercept the three armies at Cyanstone Valley and deal as much damage to them as possible. Plant the seed of fear into their hearts and keep them at bay with the first engages. We can probably retreat after the Cyan Tiger Cavalry returns."

A muscle twitched in High Fighting Spirits’ features. "Most of us aren’t going to survive, are we?"

I nodded with a smile. "Yep, I at least have no plans of returning to Dark Moon City before dying. Why do you ask? You feeling the jitters or something?"

High Fighting Spirits immediately raised Invincible and laughed heartily. "Not at all! In fact, I feel honored to be able to die with my brothers, not to mention that a battle with almost no chance of survival is exactly the battle I like, hahaha! There’s nothing I fear more than loneliness, and the idea of dying alone has always been one of my biggest fears. But not today! We may die, but at least we die together, hahaha!"

Xu Yang joined in on the laughter and raised his own sword. "That’s right! We may die, but we die together! If the name of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is relayed far and wide, to the entire world, after this battle, what’s one or two deaths? Let’s die then!"

Li Chengfeng chuckled. "Well said. We die together!"

Chaos Moon curled her lips. "Shut up, the battle hasn’t even begun yet, and you’re talking about dying already? In my opinion, we should fight with the absolute confidence to win…"

Li Chengfeng shook his head. "Let’s be realistic. We’re only 7000 strong, while the enemy has over 300000 players. Moreover, I heard that they have a full regiment of cavalry. We’ll be lucky to hold out for more than two hours."

I said, "It’ll be a win for us if the enemy can’t push past us in two hours. It’s because our Cyan Tiger Cavalry should be done with their battle by then. What we’re doing now is buying time until their return. Little Gui, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and Heaven’s Rain better perform well and come back to us before we’re all dead!"

Li Chengfeng, Xu Yang and everyone else clenched their fists and smiled. "Let us fight to our last breaths for Ancient Sword! We may die, but we’ll bring as many of our enemies down with us as we can!"

"Yeah!"

……

Half an hour later, we arrived at Cyanstone Valley. The mountain rocks were all covered in vines or trees, painting a beautiful, cyan-colored scenery on both sides of the road. No wonder it was called Cyanstone Valley.

"Hoho, it’s so beautiful…" Beiming Xue smiled beautifully as she gripped the Burning Shadow Bow and observed her surroundings.

I smiled. "I guess? It’s going to be drenched in red very soon."

Li Chengfeng observed the surroundings for a moment before saying, "Lu Chen, let’s make our formation here. This place is about three hundred yards and just enough to fit our army of seven thousand. We can make a perfect defense line here."

I nodded and examined the surroundings carefully. Then, I pointed a finger to the distance and said, "Fighters, see that spot about 50 yards away from here? I want everyone to form a line there. Unfortunately, we are lacking in fighters right now, so I want everyone, especially tamers, to summon their pets and fill up space as well. The fighters will stand at the frontline. Next, see those tall, craggy rocks at the back? They’re tall enough to increase vision range and shooting range, so Beiming Xue, please position our archers and mages up there. We’re going to use heavy firepower to make up for our lack of magic knights and wanderers."

Beiming Xue nodded with a smile. "Got it, big bro~"

Moon Dew had also started arranging our priest squads accordingly. Meanwhile, I was feeling a bit worried. Our fighters were the strongest in the entire world, but a large majority of them had left with Gui Guzi. Therefore, we currently had a lot of firepower but not enough tanks to protect them. Our archers and mages were the key to stopping the enemy this time.

Li Chengfeng, Xu Yang, High Fighting Spirits and Chaos Moon had also moved to the frontline and pulled out their weapons. Then, they waited patiently for the enemy to show up.

……

Inside the guild channel—

Gui Guzi: "Live battle report, Boss Broken Halberd! We’ve clashed against a Warsky Alliance squad! It’s a two-thousand-man party led by Hundred Battler!"

I asked, "How was it?’

Gui Guzi chuckled. "It’s a slaughter. Our organized charge is just too much for them to handle. They were killed before they were able to mount any sizable resistance at all. Heaven’s Rain managed to poke Hundred Battler to death with Barrier Break, and I estimate that the battle will be over in 5 minutes tops. It’s about 2000 kills to 100 deaths in our favor!"

"Well done!" I smiled gladly. Although it took Gui Guzi and our mounted players nearly two days and nights to forge the Cyan Tiger Cavalry, it was absolutely worth the time and effort. We had cleaned out all of the Rare mounts in Cyan Tiger Forest, and our cavalry troops were currently unbeatable in the entire world. Warsky Alliance must be entertaining quite the headache right now.

Xu Yang also cheered for him. "Well done, Little Gui! Keep it up!"

Gui Guzi asked, "Brother Yang, are you with boss Broken Halberd and the others right now? What are you guys doing?"

Xu Yang answered, "We’re intercepting Hall of Immortality, Throne Seeker and Rose of the Holy Domain at Cyanstone Valley to buy as much time for you as possible."

Gui Guzi: "Will you die?"

Xu Yang: "Hell yeah!"

Gui Guzi declared, "Don’t worry, I will return with everyone as soon as possible. I promise I won’t allow my brothers and sisters to bleed more than is necessary!"

Heaven’s Rain also chimed in. "Yeah, please hold on, everyone!"

……

Li Chengfeng and I exchanged a smile with each other. We both couldn’t help but be moved and gladdened by the atmosphere in the guild right now. Our party was united because we were all willing to throw our lives away for each other. Just as we were about to fight a suicidal battle to buy time for Gui Guzi and our mounted players, Gui Guzi and our mounted players were also fighting to defend their oath to protect Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!

It was at this moment we started hearing the rumbling of horse hooves. It grew louder and louder until the entire valley was shaking with the noise. Soon, a seemingly endless wave of players appeared from the horizon like a black tide. The enemy’s vanguard were cavalry troops, but unlike our homogeneous Cyan Tiger Cavalry, they were made up of all kinds of mounts. It looked neither uniform nor organized.

"Here they come. God damn, they’re fast!" Xu Yang said while gripping his sword tighter.

Standing at the forefront and gripping my own weapon tightly, I growled, "Together, we fulfill our oath and protect the Ancient Sword!"

Everyone pulled out their weapons in unison and responded in kind, "Together, we fulfill our oath and protect the Ancient Sword!"

The declaration resounded throughout the valley and inside everyone’s heart. When a person became determined, and they knew that the things they protected were worth protecting, they could give it their all even at the cost of their life!

The enemy’s random assortment of riders reached us in just the blink of an eye, the guild emblems on their shoulder shining brightly. The guild emblem resembled a pink rose, but it was the symbol of the second subguild of Rose of the Holy Domain, not the main guild!

"Motherfucker!" Li Chengfeng uttered through clenched teeth. "How cunning! They sent a subguild to test us! This Rose of the Holy Domain is definitely no small fry!"

I smiled. "Prepare for battle. Archers, Far Shot!"

……

At the back, countless arrows cut through the air after Beiming Xue gave the order. Almost every archer had loosed more than 10 arrows in 3 seconds since max-rank Volley was composed of 12 arrows. A sea of iron arrows covered the sky for a time!

Pu pu pu...

Sparks flew everywhere as the powerful shots hit the knights’ metal armor. However, at least one-third of the arrows managed to penetrate the metal and sink into their target’s flesh, especially the Evil Spirit volley from Beiming Xue. The skill had exploded in between a group of players and dealt a shocking amount of splash damage. In that instant, countless riders fell off their mounts and died. They were just the second subguild of the Rose of the Holy Domain after all. Neither their equipment nor their levels were the best of the best.

Moonlight Stone also aimed her staff to the front and shouted, "Mages, suppressive fire with Galaxy Storm!"

Countless black whirlpools composed of celestial bodies instantly landed in front of our frontliners and formed a line of defense made of sheer firepower. Engulfed by the Galaxy Storms before they even got close enough to attack us, the knights of the second subguild of the Rose of the Holy Domain could only scream, die, and drop a ton of equipment and potions.