"Hi, my beloved little skeleton, your sword is extremely worn and battered, so it’ll cost you 12987 gold coins to repair it! Don’t you worry, I’m going to use a special method to repair it to make sure that it won’t lose any of its maximum durability!" a blacksmith who was swaddled in a thick cloak said. As he moved his arms to pour molten metal into a cast, I realized that those "arms" were made up entirely of bones. I shuddered inwardly at the sight.

This blacksmith had a sharp eye and he had realized who I was the moment I stepped into his shop, but he still decided to gouge me on repair fees. The entire Dark Moon City was on a war footing, so the NPCs wouldn’t even give their city lord a discount right now! Ah, the hypocrisy of this world!

Just the repair cost of my Cyan Netherworld Sword was more than ten thousand gold. Just forking over the money made me feel like puking blood. However, this made me recognize just how badly I needed to earn more money! If I didn’t keep grinding away, I wouldn’t even have enough cash to repair my own damn weapon!

After that, I got the eerie blacksmith to repair the rest of my equipment. I cried tears of blood as I paid him more than thirty thousand gold. The only good thing about this entire affair was that I had most definitely made the repair cost back and more! Any event that wore my equipment down this much was always a highly profitable one. The diversion at the valley had also been one such event! Even though everyone had ended up dying, all of the core fighters had an inventory full of great items that the enemy players had dropped. The players from the Hall of Immortality weren’t poor or low-level, so we had picked up more Outstanding Purple Gold and Dark Gold–grade items than we could even count. If we threw all of our spoils of war into Sky City’s auction, even the worst of the bunch would sell for a thousand gold. We would already cover our repair and potion cost once we sold a dozen of these items.

……

After I finished repairing my items, I immediately walked over to the city walls. As a Rank 6 castle, Dark Moon City’s walls were rather solid, and they had all been carved from a kind of hard black rock. Our gate towers were around twenty meters tall and three meters wide, and six to ten archers could fit inside one tower. Right now, the walls were already lined with archers and Beiming Xue and the best archers in our guild were all gathered in the tallest arrow tower in Dark Moon City.

Height determined an archer’s damage and the impact of their arrows. Shooting from high ground also extended the range of their arrows. Given Beiming Xue’s insane attack power and her OP Famous General Skill, our archers would most certainly leave their mark on this battle.

Once I ascended the steps of the city walls, I peered into the distance. After that, I yelled, "Their horsemen will enter the range of our vision in fifteen minutes or less!"

Gui Guzi held his Rainbow in hand and asked, "Boss Broken Halberd, was their cavalry troop very strong?"

I chuckled at those words.

Li Chengfeng quickly replied on my behalf, "Little Gui, their Ghost Rider cavalry division is around seven thousand men strong. The mounts they are riding on are Level 120 Dark Gold Rank mounts. We killed around two thousand of them in the Dragonbone Mountain Range, so there should only be about five thousand of them left. However, they still have enough numbers to pose a significant threat to us. You just asked if they were strong. The only thing I can tell you is that both Lu Chen and I died to their cavalry charge. So why don’t you tell me if you think they’re strong?"

Gui Guzi’s eye instantly started burning with excitement and raged. He roared with laughter before he said, "This is great! Our Cyan Tiger Cavalry finally has a foe worthy enough to face us in battle! Little Rain, You and Yun, let’s prepare to move out!"

"Okay!"

Both Heaven’s Rain and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun drew their blades as they prepared to sally forth to battle. Heaven’s Rain’s weapon was a broadblade, a type of sword commonly used by magic knights. As she walked past me, she shot me a grin. "Big bro Lu Chen, don’t you worry! Our Cyan Tiger Cavalry is super strong! We’ll definitely avenge you! Just stay in the city and watch us go to work!"

"Okay!" I replied as I gave a heavy nod of my head. After that, I chuckled and said, "Little Rain, all of you still need to be careful. I think that these Ghost Riders will reach the city walls before the rest of their troops arrive. You can take advantage of that to give them one hell of a welcome first. But remember this! I don’t want any of you to get too engrossed in fighting! The moment their main force starts to arrive, I want all of you to immediately retreat back to the city! We will use the archers and mages stationed on our walls to harass them first and the rest of us foot soldiers will come down and support you as well."

Heaven’s Rain’s smile grew even sweeter. She nodded her head repeatedly as she said, "Okay, okay, I got it, big bro! Little Rain definitely won’t let you down! Alright, Little Gui and I are going to head out!"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun spoke up indignantly, "Then what about your big brother You and Yun?"

"I got it, Uncle You and Yun!"

"Ptooey!" Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun practically vomited blood. He was so angry that he tripped and fell down the stairs. He landed on his back and started cursing angrily, but at least he had saved himself the effort of climbing down the stairs.

……

Soon, all of the riders belonging to our main guild had gathered at the city gates. Every single one of them was riding a Cyan Battle Tiger mount. They gathered under the banners of Gui Guzi, Heaven’s Rain, and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun as they drew their weapons and waited for battle. Everyone was quietly staring into the distance and just as expected, we soon started to see many tiny dots appear on the horizon! Those were the Ghost Riders who had decimated two thousand of our elites in the Dragonbone Mountain Range!

Gui Guzi’s gaze turned fevered as he raised his Rainbow high in the air. His lips curled up into a grin as he laughed and said, "Brothers and sisters, the invaders have arrived! Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls has never offended any guild in Vanished God City, but the Hall of Immortality, Throne Seeker, and Rose of the Holy Domain chose to challenge us in spite of that! As heroes, we would rather die than surrender! We will never allow Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls to be subjected to this sort of humiliation! Brace yourselves, everyone! It’s our turn to show the Hall of Immortality’s Ghost Riders who the strongest cavalry troop truly is! Charge!"

After he finished his speech, Gui Guzi used Rainbow to whip the side of his battle tiger. The fierce beast below him let out an angry roar as it shot to the head of the pack! The halo of his Famous General Skill appeared underneath the battle tiger’s paws. He had activated Knight God! Heaven’s Rain also spurred her mount into action as she activated her Famous General Skill—Knight General! Even though Knight General wasn’t as powerful as Knight God, it was still an exceedingly useful skill, and if we managed to get a few more players with this skill, our cavalry troops would really become unrivaled under the heavens!

As he saw the Cyan Tiger Cavalry sprint toward the enemy riders, Li Chengfeng let out an appreciative whistle. "Hot damn! Gui Guzi and Heaven’s Rain are about to rip them a new one! That counts as some sort of revenge, eh."

I nodded my head and chuckled. "Yeah. But don’t forget, we’re going to hit Level 150 soon. Once we reach that level, us warriors will be able to mount up too! Heh heh, that will be the true day of our revival!"

Li Chengfeng let out a knowing laugh. "Hahaha, you got that right! I’ve been waiting for this day to come for far too long!"

Xu Yang interrupted us with a grim look on his face. "Lu Chen, we have about seventy thousand players defending the city right now, but our enemies are coming at us with more than three hundred thousand players. I think that we’re still going to have a very rough time defending the city, and we don’t even know what Hegemon Palace and Gods of Destruction are up to yet. If they join in the attack as well, we will be in some serious trouble."

I gave a carefree laugh as I patted him on the shoulder. "Don’t be so tense, Xu Yang. Everything will be alright! Besides, according to the rules of the system, if someone attacks a city, the defending party will be able to earn a huge reward for their city if they kill enough players within the confines of their territory. There’s even a chance that the city will rise in rank! To me, Hall of Immortality, Throne Seeker, and Rose of the Holy Domain didn’t come to attack our city, they came to help us raise Dark Moon City to Rank 8! Hahaha!"

Chaos Moon’s sweet laughter rang in the air. "Heh, why are you always this hopelessly optimistic…"

"Heh! Okay, time’s a wastin’ people! I want all warriors to follow me down to the city gates. We are going to form defense squads outside of the city and prepare to support Gui Guzi’s cavalry!"

"Roger that!"

……

As we started to gather at the city gate, I called some warriors from Bloody Mercenaries over on the way. A group of five thousand elite warriors were split into squads to defend the city while we left our mages and priests on the city walls. It would be much easier for them to cast offensive and healing spells from high ground and it would also be harder for the enemy players to hit them as well. That was one of the natural advantages of being on the defense.

The sounds of battle broke out in the distance as both cavalry troops finally crashed into each other!

Clang!

As Gui Guzi rode past a Ghost Rider, he slammed the tip of his spear into him. Burning energy spiraled out around the tip of his blade right before it slammed into the other party’s chestplate, leaving a huge gaping hole in his armor. After that, he immediately hit him with a Death Combo! The impact of Gui Guzi’s blows were so heavy that it sent the Level 134 magic knight flying straight off his horse! Our undead knight had killed him in two attacks!

On the other side, red light illuminated Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun’s face as he launched a Rock Smash into a group of Ghost Riders which instantly killed some of them and wrecked their formation!

In truth, AoE skills were still extremely important in mounted combat. They could not only inflict serious damage on a group of charging enemies, they could also completely disrupt and destroy their formation as they charged forward. This was invaluable when it came to fights between riders.

"Die! Die!" Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun’s blade danced in the air as he kept hitting the enemy horsemen with his skills like Double Slash and Mount Hua Strike. The enemy Ghost Riders stared at him dumbfounded shock as one of them exclaimed in dismay, "Fuck me upside down! This wanderer from Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is hella fierce! Could he be the Fruit Knife Goddess’s uncle?"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun attacks grew even fiercer as he roared, "FUCK YOU ALL! I’m not even thirty years old! I’m not a god damn uncle!"

Heaven’s Rain had also charged into battle. Spirals of flaming energy erupted around her broadsword from time to time as she casually flicked her sword at her opponents. She was a very clever fighter who never aimed for a quick kill. Instead, she flitted around the battlefield while dealing as much damage as possible. It resembled the hit-and-run tactics used by guerilla fighters.

Every time she rushed past a squad of enemy riders, she would shave off a big chunk of their HP. She would then immediately move on to her next set of victims while she let the Cyan Tiger Cavalry behind her finish off the wounded players she left in her wake. Of course, this fighting style didn’t negatively affect her guild contribution points one bit.

There were many ways to earn guild contribution points. Killing your target was one way, but dealing as much damage as possible was another. A priest’s healing would also earn them contribution points if they healed wounded guild members, so a decently strong priest would have no problems earning points either. Murong Mingyue was a perfect example of this as she had always ranked in the Top 5 when it came to guild contribution points.

Bang, bang, bang...

As both cavalry troops collided into each other, the superiority of our Cyan Tiger Cavalry was immediately evident. The Ghost Riders’ mounts actually swayed and stumbled backward under the impact from our charging tigers. Both parties pressed in and exchanged vicious blows before wheeling off to regroup and charge at each other once more. Bodies fell to the ground every time both groups clashed and nearly all of them belonged to the Ghost Riders. Our super cavalry had torn into them like a starving tiger and at least five hundred of these Ghost Riders had been sent to their graves. The brutal truth was that our Cyan Tiger Calvary was far stronger than the Hall of Immortality’s Ghost Riders. In fact, most of them could barely even fend off the attacks from our riders.

Both Gui Guzi and Heaven’s Rain were very clever fighters. They exploited the advantage provided by their Famous General Skills to the limit by having the two hundred people in their parties form the tip of the spear which clashed with the Ghost Riders’ formation every time. As a result, every time our troops clashed in battle, they would naturally come out on top thanks to the outstanding Attack and Defense buffs provided by Knight God and Knight General. There was simply nothing the enemy could do to the two hundred cavalrymen who were empowered by those skills.

As Gui Guzi raised Rainbow high in the air, he let out a roar of fury. "It was these bastards who killed our comrades from the main guild in the Dragonbone Mountain Range! Slaughter every last one of them! I want to wipe these Ghost Riders off the map completely. The time has come to defend the honor of all the cavalrymen in Sky City. Let’s send these dumbasses back home! Charge!"