A lot of people were stunned by the system announcement. It didn’t exactly halt the battle ongoing at the territory hall, but the people certainly slowed down a lot to digest the information.

"Did Beauty Lin just learn a Divine General Skill?" Li Chengfeng exclaimed in astonishment.

Xu Yang nodded. "Yep."

Gui Guzi took out a couple of Hall of Immortality archers with one sweep of his spear before humming out loud, "God’s Tear? They even hid its effects. I wonder what’s going on there…"

I said, "It must be very powerful. Yiyi is probably the strongest 1v1 player in China right now…"

Li Chengfeng nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I’ve heard of the effects of Great Earth Transformation. When it is active, all resistances are increased by 50%, attack power is increased by 100%, and you’ll be surrounded by a domain called Earthfire Realm that gives you a high chance of negating weak attacks completely. In PvP, this is almost the same as activating an invincibility skill, not to mention that it complements perfectly with Beauty Lin’s amazing skills."

Feeling a bit saddened for some reason, I sucked in a deep breath and glanced at my friend list. However, her ID wasn’t there anymore.

……

"Kill kill kill! Kill Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand first!"

I heard Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch shouting behind me. The idiot was assembling a team of a hundred riders and hoping to mount a comeback.

Unfortunately for him, the glory times of Hall of Immortality were long gone. When I breached the entrance, at least a thousand Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players had rushed in after me. It took us only five minutes to claw back to even ground, and ten minutes to turn it into a one-sided slaughter. The ten thousand defenders in the territory hall just couldn’t withstand the onslaught.

The Armored Ice Qilin Horse let out a long neigh and raised its hooves. I seized an opening to charge into a group of players and fire Burning Blade Slash. The sound of my sword slicing and dicing bones into pieces was incredibly melodious, and practically no one could withstand the full brunt of the skill at all. Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch especially was moving backward in fright.

"You think you can escape?!"

I was no longer the highest contributor in the guild because I had spent them on several items , and killing an enemy guild leader would reward me with a handsome sum of guild contribution points. This was the perfect opportunity for me to regain my throne once more!

"Roar roar!"

The Phantom Wolf King pounced toward Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch from behind and sank its teeth into his arm. It deleted a massive chunk of health and pulled him off his mount.

I dashed toward him and slashed his neck as quick as lightning. Just like that, Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch slowly sank to his knees and died just like that. He didn’t drop any equipment, but he was still worth 10000 guild contribution points. I absolutely loved earning contribution points by killing people like him.

In fact, this part of the game was exploitable. One could designate a small guild as an enemy guild, find a random person to be the guild leader, and kill them 100 times to accumulate 1 million guild contribution points in one go… or that was the theory anyway. In reality, it wasn’t that easy to execute. For starters, none of our top players were shameless enough to use such an exploit. Second, our enemy guild list was only reserved for giant guilds like Hegemon Palace, Flower Room, Candle Dragon, and more. Anyone else smaller than them just didn’t deserve to appear on our enemy guild list. With that in mind, would Candlelight Shadow, Wang Dongliang, Li Le, and the rest let us kill them repeatedly to farm contribution points? Of course not!

……

The battle was quickly approaching the end. The guild leader of Rose of the Holy Domain, Rose Thorn, had activated her invincibility skill and teleported back to her city in a flashy display of her favorite PvP combo. The guild leader of Throne Seeker, Emperor’s Equal, was taken out by Chaos Moon’s Rock Crush, and two of their vice leaders were also killed by He Yi. He Yi’s PvP skills had been improving by leaps and bounds thanks to constant trials, and I was very glad for her.

There were barely a handful of enemy players left in the territory hall when the countdown approached the last 10 minutes.

"And, done!"

I said to everyone, "Alright, it’s time to leave, everyone! Let’s move outside and guard the entrance so our Baidicheng friends can take over the territory hall!"

"Mn!" Everyone nodded and followed me out of the hall.

It wasn’t long before the players of Blazing Hot Lips and The Monarch Descends did the same. When only Baidicheng’s players were left in the territory hall, a system announcement rang—

Ding~!

System Announcement: Congratulations to guild "Baidicheng" for occupying the city "Immortality City." There is still 8 minutes and 12 seconds left on the clock before the battle is over. If "Hall of Immortality" fails to mount a comeback in time, "Baidicheng" will take over "Immortality City" permanently!

……

The dust had settled, and all that was left to do was wait. The war had continued for more than ten hours, and terrific battles had been fought on every wall of the city. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to claim that bones covered the ground beneath the walls completely. It was said that success was built atop a mountain of corpses, but even that hyperbole wasn’t good enough to describe this war. Literally millions of players had died here today.

The occupation of the territory hall was a success, but just in case something unexpected happened, He Yi and Gui Guzi led some players back into the hall. 8 more minutes, and our expedition quest would be well and truly complete.

This time, we were able to show off the power of our elite cavalries to all of China. Not only were we able to conquer the city, we were able to decimate Candlelight Shadow’s prided Viper Dragoons. It wasn’t really their fault though. The Viper Dragoons were pretty powerful units, but they lacked a Famous General that could really buff them to obscene levels of power. Meanwhile, we had Martial God, Royal Road, Knight God, and even two Knight Generals that greatly increased our cavalry’s Attack and Defense. The five of us were without a doubt the biggest reason behind the defeat of the Viper Dragoons, so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised if it left a shadow in Candlelight’s heart.

Behind me, the territory hall was surrounded by Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Baidicheng, Blazing Hot Lips, and The Monarch Descends players. Outside, a lot of Hall of Immortality, Candle Dragon, Rose of the Holy Domain, and Throne Seeker players were still trying to make it back into the city, but with less than ten minutes left on the clock, not even a living deity could turn things around for them.

I couldn’t be bothered to get back into the territory hall and socialize with the others right now, so I got off my mount, led it to a corner by a wall, stabbed my sword on the ground, and sat down. The Phantom Wolf King also let out a small whine before withdrawing its savage battle form and curled up next to me like a dog. It kept rubbing its furry head against my arm and enjoying itself.

I leaned my head against a stone wall and exhaled deeply. The war was finally over, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls finally defeated Candle Dragon, and our name was spread throughout China. I wanted everyone to know that Candle Dragon wasn’t invincible, and that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was back with a vengeance!

……

Suddenly, I thought of the recently ascended Lin Yixin. She had learned a Divine General Skill and the special ability one could trigger after becoming an Earthfire Realm player, Great Earth Transformation. Since the skill came together with a Divine General Skill, it made sense that one would learn Great Earth Transformation after they became a Divine General. It sounded like an amazing skill too. Right now, I’m sure that Lin Yixin’s fighting capability is the best in the entire server.

I brought up my friend list, but Lin Yixin’s ID wasn’t there anymore. I selected Clear Perfume’s profile and sent her a call request. If Lin Yixin wouldn’t contact me, then I would speak with her best friend instead!

"Mn. Lu Chen?" Sun Qingqing’s voice came from the other side of the communicator.

I nodded. "Yes, it’s me. Are… are you with Yiyi right now?"

"Yes, why?" Sun Qingqing replied.

I swallowed and nearly couldn’t suppress a sob. "How is she doing?"

"She’s doing very well. Snowy Cathaya didn’t participate in the war of Immortality City, so she took us to a big map instead. When we killed the last boss, she even became a Divine General. You saw it too, didn’t you? Hehe, Yiyi is so amazing. She’s the first Divine General in all of Heavenblessed…"

"Mn."

"Lu Chen, what’s wrong?"

I blinked hard and blew away the sand in my eyes. Then I said, "Qingqing, Yiyi is there with you, right? Can you tell her to add me back to her friend list? Please?"

"Sorry, she doesn’t want to."

"In that case, tell her that I miss her…" In the end, I couldn’t stop myself from saying this.

Qingqing didn’t say anything for a long time. She probably ran into some trouble while she was relaying my message to Lin Yixin. Almost half a minute later, she finally said, "Oh, right. I gave Yiyi your message already."

"What… what did she say?"

Sun Qingqing scolded me. "She didn’t say anything, she’s just laughing like an idiot. Man, I feel like punching someone right now!"

I couldn’t help but laugh. "Mn. Thanks, Qingqing."

I hung up and looked at the sky, the corners of my eyes turning upward and starlight brushing against my cheeks. Yiyi would be leaving for Canada soon.

A few minutes later, just when I was feeling rather drowsy, Sun Qingqing suddenly sent me another message: "Lu Chen, cherish Yiyi, okay? I’ve known her for many years, but I’ve never met anyone who gave her so much happiness until you."

"Mn. I know. I will."

……

I got up to my feet again. The battle had to be over soon, right?

A short moment later, a system announcement rang and declared the conclusion of the territory war!

Ding~!

System Announcement: Congratulations to guild "Baidicheng" for successfully occupying the territory "Immortality City." The war is categorized as a "Grand" war as countless souls have perished in this battle. The first player on the war contribution leaderboard, "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand", is given the reward: Luck +2, Level +3. The 2nd and 3rd players on the war contribution leaderboard, "Candlelight Shadow" and "Stranger of Three Lifetimes", are given the reward: Luck +1, Level +2. Players ranked 4th to 10th on the war contribution leaderboard are given the reward: Luck +1, Level +1. Finally, players ranked 11th to 1000th on the war contribution leaderboard are given the reward: Level +1.

……

The war was finally over, and the rewards were handsome. War contribution points were basically accumulated via kill count, and at least one-third of the players in the Top 1000 were Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players. This war was an overall win for us, especially since Baidicheng and Blazing Hot Lips gave us first dibs on the loot on the battlefield. Neither girls were willing to mistreat their ally.

"It’s over…" I exhaled.

"Yes, it’s over!"

Hot Sour Noodles, the guild leader of Righteousness appeared out of nowhere and gave me a smile. "The CGL committee has decided to burn the midnight oil and tally the points tonight. We will be releasing the new ranking on Heavenblessed’s official website tomorrow at 9 am sharp. Do look forward to it, Lu Chen!"

"Mn, got it. Thanks for your hard work, Mr. Hot Sour Noodles."

"Hahaha…"

The man left just like that.