"YOU MOTHERFUCKING NORTHERN SONS OF A BITCHES!"

Pillar of the Nation was swinging his sword like crazy. His heart had shattered like glass when he saw his cherished general ganged up by three Heroic Bannermen and killed.

Vienna’s Sorrow simply let out a cold chuckle and flicked his sword at Wang Dongliang, signaling his men to take him out. He never even looked back as he moved to a different part of the battlefield. Perhaps he looked down on players at Wang Dongliang’s level from the bottom of his heart.

"Pepper them with arrows and take them all!"

A rain of arrows answered Grief of the Dark’s call, and a short moment later, all one thousand of Hegemon Palace’s players were shot to death.

With this, another Top 10 guild on the China Guild Ranking, Hegemon Palace was knocked out of the Nation War. Just like Gods of Destruction, not a single one of them survived to see the end of this war!

……

"That’s another group of reinforcements gone…" I looked behind me grimly after one-shotting a group of players with Thousand Ice Slash.

He Yi pressed her lips together and said, "I just received news that Mad Dragon and Flower Room were shot to death by Hot Sand City’s archers at the southeast side of the city. They weren’t strong enough to breach the enemy’s defenses, but they were too stupid to find an easier path to us, so they died."

I sighed and spent a moment to check the CGL Hall of Fame screen on the Nation War interface. Ling Xueshang, God’s Dance, Transient Smoke and Clouds, Come See The Snow Tonight, Transient, Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties, Predestined and more—all of these names had dimmed before I knew it. The war had been so intense that I didn’t even notice their passing until now.

Our allied guilds, The Monarch Descends, Blazing Hot Lips and Baidicheng were all annihilated, and the only ones who were still standing were the 2000 players—no, not even that—of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. The Dragonlight Cavalry, the troop Hot and Sour Noodles claimed to be the "strongest ace of the entire China server", had dwindled to 42 players, and even now, the number of casualties were still increasing.

The area in front of the palace entrance had turned into a blood-soaked purgatory at this point.

One by one, our comrades collapsed to the ground and died. Everyone was lost and terrified. No one knew how much longer we could hold on until we finally couldn’t.

It was at this moment a voice broke out from the guild channel—

Li Chengfeng: "Are you guys… still there?"

"What’s wrong, Chengfeng?" I asked hurriedly.

Li Chengfeng let out a pained chuckle. "I… don’t think I can hold on much longer, so sorry, everyone, but I think I’ll be going before you guys. Titan God is just… too damn powerful. But don’t worry. I may die… but I promise I’ll bring him down to the grave with me! I, Li Chengfeng, didn’t bring shame to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Lu Chen! Guild leader!"

"Li…" Gui Guzi murmured.

……

A few minutes later, multiple system announcements broke out in succession—

Ding~!

System Announcement: Attention all players, Heroic Bannerman "Smile of the Reaper" (USA) has been killed by player "Legendary Brave" (China)!

Ding~!

System Announcement: Attention all players, Heroic Bannerman "Wee Hours Town" (USA) has been killed by player "Legendary Brave" (China)!

Ding~!

System Announcement: Attention all players, Heroic Bannerman "Titan God" (USA) has been killed by player "Legendary Brave" (China)!

……

That was three system announcements in a row! Somehow, Li Chengfeng had killed three Heroic Bannermen at the same time!

"Holy shit, Li is unbelievable! He… he even killed that monster, Titan God!" High Fighting Spirits clenched his fists and shouted in excitement.

But He Yi said with a downcast expression, "Li Chengfeng’s ID just turned dark. He’s gone as well…"

Beside her, Xu Yang said quietly, "To tell you all the truth… all our Cyan Tiger Cavalry and riders were killed at Breeze Canyon 30 minutes ago. Chengfeng had kept over 5000 enemies at bay by himself, killing nearly 4000 and even dragging 3 Heroic Bannermen to the grave with him during his final moment…"

Xu Yang then waved a hand and showed us Li Chengfeng’s battlefield—

It was cold and biting in Breeze Canyon. Hills of corpses could be seen everywhere, and at the center of the canyon stood Li Chengfeng with his eyes closed permanently. Two iron spears had pierced his chest and damn near nailed him to the ground. His hand was gripping Titan God’s sword even after he died, and his Blade of Ghastly Wind was lodged at the center of Titan God’s neck. The dead men were standing in the middle of a deep pit caused by Dragonblade Revolution. It was the skill that had taken out all three Heroic Bannermen in one go.

Traces of dissipating whirlwind could still be seen in the video. This was how Li Chengfeng had fought to the bitter end.

……

I sucked in a deep breath before exhaling, "Chengfeng, you fool…"

Gui Guzi chuckled. "Well, we ain’t any better than him…"

It was at this moment a new system announcement broke out—

Ding~!

System Announcement: Attention all players, CGL Hall of Famer "Moonkiss" (China) has been killed by Vienna’s Sorrow (USA)!

Moonkiss was dead!

I turned around in a daze just in time to catch Clear Perfume and her troops collapsing beneath the enemy’s Galaxy Storms. The Northern Alliance’s firepower was just too much to handle!

"Where is Purple Marquis?" I asked.

Gui Guzi uttered through gritted teeth. "He’s probably dead as well. That damn Vienna! How many more of our brethren will he kill until he’s satisfied? The worst part is that this fucker never engages us directly. He always skirts around the edges and attacks only when he sees an opportunity."

I nodded. Enemies like him were the scariest of them all!

……

Boom boom boom…

A series of magical storms and powerful arrows assaulted us for a moment. Finally, even Luo River God of the Capital let out a painful cry and lost her Magic Shield. A couple of magic knights hurriedly rushed forward to kill her.

Swhoosh!

However, Beiming Xue pulled out her dagger and rushed to the defense just in time to parry three consecutive attacks. Not only that, the Thunder Beast managed to drive away the enemy with its claws and bought 6 precious seconds for Luo River God of the Capital to reactivate her Magic Shield.

"Kill! Kill off the last resisters!"

Blade of Kings swung his axe and ordered, "There’s no need to move forward, frontliners! Just surround them from all sides and hit them at range! Do your best to take out their backliners without losing anyone!"

I panicked. Our last defense was starting to crumble after the group of fighters in front of us died to enemy fire. The situation was so desperate that even Beiming Xue, an archer, had to fight at the front.

A furious Ironwing Dragon swiped and blasted away at the enemy from the sky, but a concentrated storm of arrows ultimately brought it down and sent it back to its pet space. Even with its Defense, there was no surviving this many attacks.

There were less than 30 Dragonlight Cavalrymen around me now, and everyone had less than 30% to 50% HP left. If this situation was allowed to continue, we would be routed for sure.

"Retreat!"

I shouted, "Everyone, retreat into the Life Barrier and let it buy us some time!"

He Yi looked astonished. "But…"

"No time for buts! We’re going to die whether or not we enter the Life Barrier anyway, so we may as well wait until they destroy it and stall for some time!"

I looked at the interface and said, "There’s only 3 hours left! Victory is ours as long as we can hold them off for another 3 hours!"

Finally, my beautiful guild leader made up her mind and nodded. "Alright. Everyone, enter the Life Barrier now! It should buy us a bit more time!"

Behind us, the azure-colored light screen that was the Life Barrier rippled incessantly as Beiming Xue, Pure Love, Murong Mingyue and everyone else rushed through it. Eventually, even the Dragonlight Cavalry was forced to enter the barrier as well.

"They’re running away! Break that barrier and kill all of them!"

Blade of Kings’ face looked almost distorted as he said that. He stared at me coldly and laughed, "That Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand especially must die a slow death! That fucker has killed too many Heroic Bannermen already!"

……

Swhoosh swhoosh...

Gui Guzi and He Yi entered the Life Barrier together.

Rustle!

The Armored Ice Qilin Horse neighed as I forced it to a halt just one step away from the Life Barrier. Now, I was the only one left standing outside the barrier.

Everyone stared at me in astonishment as He Yi cried out, "What are you doing, Lu Chen? Come in already!"

I smiled. "Sorry. The Life Barrier has a durability bar, so someone’s gotta protect it. Since you’ve all gone inside, I’m the only one left who can do this."

"Have you gone insane, Lu Chen? Do you even know what you’re doing?" Luo River God of the Capital stared at me. "Can you really hold back twenty million people all by yourself?"

I turned around and stared indifferently at the endless sea of enemies in front of me. A smile crossing my face, I said, "I don’t know, and I don’t care. All I know is that they have to step over my corpse if they want to get to the Life Barrier. I said before that Dawn City is a part of our homeland, so I will never surrender it to the enemy under any circumstances. I will never sacrifice Dawn City, no matter the cost!"

"You fool…" Luo River God of the Capital let out a sorrowful sigh.

Beiming Xue whispered, "Big bro, we… we’ll come out and help you right now!"

"Stop right there!" I said harshly, "Do you not understand the consequences? Anyone who entered the Life Barrier will lose 30 levels if they step out again. You are all the souls of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and our guild cannot afford such a loss! Don’t forget that you all have a responsibility to yourself and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!"

Chaos Moon uttered through gritted teeth, "Bullshit! How dare you say that when you’re the one who’s being irresponsible to yourself!"

Her words caught me slightly off-guard, but I waved my sword once and gave her a smile. "My responsibility is to be a sword to protect you all."

……

Rustle rustle rustle…

The progress of war cared not for the sacrifice of the dead. Vienna’s Sorrow walked out and stared at me silently. "What are you doing? Do you really think you can hold us off yourself?"

I didn’t answer him, unless you counted the red, undead light surrounding my sword as an answer.

"Fuck him!"

Blade of Kings growled. "Vienna, there’s no need to waste your breath on him. He’s already killed too many of our people, so let’s kill him and be done with this! He’s the highest scorer on the Chinese Nation War’s ranking, and killing him will appease everyone!"

Vienna’s Sorrow nodded. He stayed where he was as he ordered, "Go. This is the final battle!"

……

I looked at the sky and laughed almost arrogantly. After applying the Resurrection Art to myself, I crossed my sword in front of me and shouted, "Come! This is the final battle!"