Spittle flew all over the place as High Fighting Spirits shouted, "Fuck, what are we and Purple Lily going to do if they just withdraw like that…"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun said, "What else? We need to withdraw with them, or we’ll be pincered from three sides and wiped out!"

He Yi nodded. "Yes. Let’s tighten our formation and retreat to the back. We’ll draw the Northern Alliance’s army to Dawn Valley and kill them with its complex terrain!"

"Lu Chen will cover our retreat, and the Dragonlight Cavalry will charge the battle line one more time to minimize our losses. Is that fine?" Li Chengfeng looked for my approval.

"That works. Go!"

The Dragonlight Cavalry was already standing by for orders. Once we joined the parties and took over as party leaders, we all activated our stratagems at once!

"Attack! We’re covering our men’s retreat!"

After I barked out the order, all 1800 Dragonlight Cavalrymen activated their Charge and ran the enemies over. When it came to guerilla warfare, our cavalry held the absolute advantage. At the very least, it would be incredibly hard for anyone to kill us with our stats.

The Cyan Tiger Cavalry’s numbers had dwindled to 7000 or so, and they were also covering our troops’ retreat under Du Thirteen’s leadership. We were able to withdraw slowly to the deeper parts of the valley. Candle Dragon was doing much worse because the enemies were literally on their asses. Behind Candle Dragon was Winter Pine Forest, a map about one kilometer wide, and normally it would be filled with Level 165 mobs. However, this was the Nation War, and the players of three major cities were gathered here. Level 165 wasn’t too threatening, so the mobs were probably swept clean a long time ago.

……

Meanwhile, Hot and Sour Noodles was riding across an open plain and shouting, "Withdraw slowly to the valley! Stay in formation! Hegemon Palace, Mad Dragon, Flower Room, cover for Candle Dragon right now!"

Roaming Dragon and his cavalry were standing by on an empty plain in front of the forest, but he curled his lips and said, "Why should we? Candle Dragon has always treated us like dogs, so why should we take a bullet for them? Candle Dragon can die for all I care. We’ll fight if the cowards of the Northern Alliance attack us, but that’s all!"

Flower Room’s Li Le was of the same opinion. "That’s right. Candle Dragon thinks we’re inferior, and Candlelight Shadow barely gives a shit about us. In that case, he can suffer the consequences of his own inability. Pooh, Candle Dragon thinks they’re unbeatable in the entire world, when really they’re nothing without us! I’m going to stand right here and watch you die, you fool!"

Spring Mud grinned widely. "The guild leader is wise!"

Li Le grinned back. "Of course!"

Hegemon Palace was also standing by on the other side of the forest, but Wang Dongliang was slightly smarter than both Li Le and Roaming Dragon. He pointed his sword to the flank and shouted, "Right! This is a pine forest, so if the Northern Alliance wants to hunt Candle Dragon down, they will have to split their army into smaller units. In that case, we’ll intercept them one by one and kill anyone who comes this way…"

Little Piglet grinned in understanding.

Shangguan Wan’er walked up to Pillar of the Nation and asked, "Are we not going to help Candle Dragon, guild leader?"

Pillar of the Nation curled his lips. "Nah. In fact, I can’t wait for Candle Dragon to die so that Hegemon Palace can do well in this Nation War! Hmph hmph, when the Guild Ranking is refreshed, Hegemon Palace must advance to the Top 5!"

Little Piglet said, "Okay. Guild leader is wise! By the way, my contract period has been over for quite some time... How much are going to add to my salary for the extension?"

Pillar of the Nation declared magnanimously, "Just give me the number, and I’ll sign the contract!"

"The guild leader is wise and peerless!"

……

Dawn Valley was a big, complex map that encompassed smaller maps such as Winter Pine Forest, Sunset Swamp, Horse Hoof Valley and more. It was also overgrown with mobs and the place where the victor of this war would be determined. Why? Because Dawn City was right behind Dawn Valley, and withdrawing into Dawn City was the last resort. Dawn City was only a tier 2 city, so there was no way it could survive the bombardment of lethal siege weapons such as the Fire Catapults.

Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was able to withdraw to the valley as the Dragonlight Cavalry covered their retreat. By now, the Northern Alliance had breached China’s domain completely and was flooding toward us like tidewater. Tens of thousands of elite cavalry had come together as one to trample over the China server.

"Form up and assume defensive positions right… now!"

Both the main guild and the subguilds halted exactly when I told them to and assumed positions. The magic knights ran to the frontline, thrust their gigantic shields into the ground and prepared to use Holy Shield at a moment’s notice. Behind them, thick rows of archers, mages and other ranged classes were ready to open fire at any moment as well.

The random Northern Alliance guilds who were chasing after us stopped in their tracks at once. They understood without saying that they would all die if they treated our defense formation lightly, even if their numbers might be ten times, twenty times or even a hundred times bigger than ours.

Moreover, there were still 7000 Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen and 1800 Dragonlight Cavalrymen waiting for their turn behind the shield formation. They were the sharpened talons of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and they would tear the enemy to shreds as soon as they found an opportunity!

……

The assault of the great army of the Northern Alliance had cut off the thin thread of communication that linked us and Candle Dragon up until now. On the plains, hordes of Northern Alliance cavalry were engaging Mad Dragon and Flower Room in a fierce battle. What this meant was that our guild had become fully isolated on the southwest side.

Fine by me! It only makes the battle more exciting!

I slowly walked the Armored Ice Qilin Horse slowly in front of the battle line as I gazed toward the distance. My guild emblem was incredibly conspicuous, but no more conspicuous than the five-pointed star on a red flag floating above my head and before my ID. In a Nation War, flags were added to a player’s ID so that friend and foe could be differentiated.

I turned around and shot a question to Beiming Xue. "Beiming, you have further vision than us. Can you see ahead and tell me who are our pursuers, and how many Fire Catapults they’ve brought?"

Beiming Xue nodded and leaped up a nearby hill. Sitting atop the branch of a red maple tree and swaying her legs, she said smilingly, "Big bro, I see 30 Fire Catapults and way too many people to identify who is coming after us exactly. However, I think more than half of them are players from Hot Sand City?"

“Hot Sand City… Vietnam?" I frowned a little. "The Vietnamese sure are a loyal bunch. They didn’t even hesitate to come after us. Well, this is fine…"

It was at this moment Li Chengfeng came to me and said under his breath, "I contacted a colleague at the Beijing Information Department and asked them to hack into Vietnam’s internal network. I’ve found out their plan…"

"What the fuck…"

Both He Yi and I couldn’t help but feel a bit of astonishment. Hacking the other party’s network? Information warfare never felt more real than now.

"What is their plan?" I asked him.

Li Chengfeng explained grimly, "There are 13 Heroic Bannermen in Hot Sand City, and their leader is a player called Eye of the Storm, also the guild leader of ‘The Storm’. He’s the one who united the other 16 big guilds of Hot Sand City and formed an alliance called “The 17”. Yep, they’re the army right in front of us. Not long ago, they received a mission to purge all hostiles from the southwestern side of Dawn Valley, also known as the land we’re standing on now, so yeah, there’s no avoiding this battle."

I sucked in a deep breath before asking, "How many people do they have?"

Li Chengfeng smiled. "Vietnam’s total population is about 80 million or so, and about 7% of them are participating in this virtual war. Roughly speaking, we’re facing between 3 million to 5 million players, but no more than that!"

I clenched my fists before declaring, "Very well, we shall bury all 5 million of their players at Dawn Valley today. No one will escape our wrath!"

"Yeah!"

……

Suddenly, the ranks of Hot Sand City split up to admit a magic knight riding atop an armored warhorse. As expected, he was the Level 158 magic knight, Eye of the Storm. The guild emblem on his shoulder was shaped like a blue whirlpool, and most of the players around him belonged to The Storm.

Riding his horse across the autumn grassland, Eye of the Storm slowly approached to hearing distance before calling out to us, "We meet again, friends from China!"

Chaos Moon simply swung her sword and said, "Cut the bullshit and fight us already!"

Eyes turning steely, Eye of the Storm pointed his sword forward and ordered, "The Storm, Azure Shadow, Wings of the Azure Sky, Obliterate, everyone, heed my order! The enemy before us is Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and they’re the third best guild in the China server and a worthy opponent. Kill them all!"

Iron hooves started thundering across the ground as the enemy charged!

He Yi swung her Blade of the Earthen Soul and ordered loudly, "Archers, stick to Shock Arrow, Mountain Stagger Arrow and Far Shot to kill the enemies! Mages, aim 45 degrees to the sky and launch your Ice Dragon Howls! Freeze these magic knights!"

The twang of bowstrings resounded through the air as countless arrows took flight. Many of them were imbued with the power of Bow God, Bow General, Martial God and Purple Dragon!

Bang bang bang!

The Shock Arrows detonated brightly across the magic knights’ chests and stunned many of them, turning them into obstacles for the comrades behind them. The Mountain Stagger Arrows deleted hundreds of tenacity bars in one volley and forced them to bear our Galaxy Storms on foot. Bloodcurdling screams filled the air for a moment!

The sheer amount of fireballs being tossed about the battlefield caused the entire area to become covered in thick smoke, but large groups of magic knights still managed to charge through the wall of fire and approach us. Although our archers easily sniped anyone who got close enough, they kept coming without any hesitation whatsoever. In fact, they held a huge number advantage over us. Hot Sand City’s army was at least 3 million strong, whereas Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ main guild and subguilds had only 200k players. Even counting the dozen or so random guilds who were following us during our retreat, we just barely had enough players to form a defense line that was a million strong and nowhere as firm as it should be.

……

"There’s too many of them. A melee is inevitable!" I abruptly unsheathed my weapon and shouted, "We’ll charge together and occupy the first line! Lu Buyi, party only magic knights to boost their HP and Defense! The melee is about to begin!"

Behind me, Lu Buyi nodded affirmatively. The number one tactician of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls possessed the stratagem, Purple Dragon, that boosted all player stats by 95%. Suffice it to say, his stratagem was absolutely broken, and if I didn’t have a party to boost with Martial God, I would’ve joined his party myself.

……

"Dragonlight Cavalry, form up on the west wing now!"

"Cyan Tiger Cavalry, hold the front."

"Mages and archers, aim before you shoot, dammit! You have eyes for a reason!"

I gave order after order until I was finally done. Then, I looked up and gazed toward the distance.

He Yi let out a chuckle beside me. "Hey, what are you looking at?"

"The Fire Catapults. They’re getting closer. Only 200 yards more!"

"What are you planning?" He Yi looked at me with surprise.

"Hehe, just watch!"

I licked my lips like a predator eyeing its prey. I could almost feel my blood boiling up with excitement.