"Did Candlelight Shadow just become a Divine General?" He Yi turned around and shot me a dazed look.

I nodded affirmatively before replying, "Yep, he did. He must’ve gone all out in the war for Eternal Love City. He had to, or Candle Dragon’s fame would plummet like a rock, and his so-called China’s No.1 status would shatter into nothing."

Li Chengfeng said in the guild channel, "That shameless bastard truly has no shame. The nerve of him to learn a Divine General Skill. From the looks of it, it’s an AoE skill just like Lu Chen’s Ancient Seal, but I wonder about its attack power."

I replied with a smile, "It’s fine, we’ll know the next time we see him. Chengfeng, return immediately after Burning Harbor is destroyed!"

"Got it!"

……

The number of Northern Alliance players standing in our way steadily decreased as we made our return journey. Finally, less than 10 hours after the Nation War began, we received a system notification that signaled the end of the war—

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, you have the highest contribution points in the "Battle of Black Sea." You have obtained the MVP reward: Level +3, Luck +1, Reputation +100000, and an equipment reward, "Sea Suppressing Poleyn"!

……

Hmm? Sea Suppressing Poleyn?

I hurriedly opened my bag and found dark blue poleyns sitting in a slot. They had craggy armor platings that gave them an awe-inspiring appearance, and were icy to touch when I lifted them from the back. When I checked their stats, I was delighted to learn that the 10-hour long battle was very much worth it—

Sea Suppressing Poleyns (Heaven-grade, Outstanding★★★★★)

Defense: 1350

Magic Resist: 1100

Strength: +255

Stamina: +260

Agility: +245

Tactics: +60

Passive: Increases user’s max HP by 18000

Passive: Increases user’s Defense by 45%

Slots: 7

Outstanding Property: Sea Suppression. Greatly increases user’s resistance toward ice-based magic. Damage taken from ice-based magic is reduced by 75%.

Introduction: During the ancient times, some of the sea gods who resided in the deep sea launched a war between gods and devils that resulted in the death of many ancient gods. Their soul essences condensed together to form various equipment, and the pair of Sea Suppressing Poleyns are one of the results. Imbued with divine power, the Sea Suppressing Poleyns make its user immune to cold and strengthens them.

Level Requirement: 155

……

Jackpot! What a pleasant surprise! I wasn’t expecting to get Level 155 Heaven-grade equipment!

However, the Battle of Black Sea clearly paled in comparison to the War of Dawn City in terms of scale, and it wasn’t a great enough battle to be given a special rating either. That was why there was no system announcement after the battle had ended, and the rewards were being distributed to the players. That being said, I didn’t care if there was a system announcement. I was satisfied enough with the Sea Suppressing Poleyns.

I checked my level and noted that I was exactly Level 155. The MVP reward also awarded me 3 levels, and I welcomed it since it sped up my return to the Heavenly Ranking of Sky City.

I equipped the Sea Suppressing Poleyn, and my stats jumped up visibly—

ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand (Title: Purgatory Thunder)

Class: Undead Swordsman (Great Earth Swordsman)

Level: 155

HP: 102290

Attack: 3910~4620

Defense: 6415

Magic Resist: 5610

Reputation: 328900

Tactics: 508

Luck: 54

……

My current max HP was seriously insane. The Sea Suppressing Poleyns increased my max HP by a whopping 18k, so my base health alone was over 100k. Assuming that Lu Buyi increased all my stats by 90% with Purple Dragon, Pure Love increased my HP by 50% with Physique, and I increased by HP by 40% with a Bloodknight Card for a total boost of 180%, I could have as much as 280k HP.

If I wasn’t a tank, then who was?

Of course, max buff states happened rarely as I couldn’t bring Lu Buyi and Pure Love with me all the time. Usually, a Martial God and an HP-boosting card that brought my health to 140k or so was enough.

……

I wasn’t the only one who leveled up. All around me, people were surrounded by golden light once or twice in a row. We all killed a lot of enemies and earned a ton of contribution points in this battle.

On Lin Yixin’s ship, Lin Yixin had also leveled up twice and earned a lot of Reputation points because she was ranked third on this Nation War. Right now, Reputation points were some of the most important stats she needed to re-earn because they had been reset to zero when her account was deleted. Some high-level equipment required high Reputation to wear, so she needed to earn at least 150k as soon as possible if she didn’t want to miss out on the really good stuff.

……

Suddenly, Chaos Moon exclaimed next to me, "Lu Chen, Dark Moon City just sent me some bad news!"

"What happened?" Both He Yi and I looked at her in surprise.

Chaos Moon gritted her teeth and said, "Hegemon Palace joined forces with Mad Dragon and Flower Room to assemble an army that’s 1.5 million troops strong. Those shameless fucks are trying to occupy our city while we’re gone! They have already reached the plains outside Dark Moon City, and they’ll be arriving at our walls in ten minutes at most!"

He Yi smiled a little. "Hegemon Palace and Wang Dongliang are as shameless as ever, I see."

Chaos Moon asked, "What do we do? We don’t have enough players right now. The majority of our players are still sailing with Li Chengfeng and Gui Guzi!"

I replied, "It’s simple. Tell them to leave behind a skeleton crew to command the ship, and have the rest including Lu Chengfeng and Gui Guzi teleport back to Dark Moon City. We’ll be doing the same as well. I wonder what kind of shit Hegemon Palace is going to pull this time? Truly, a dog can't stop himself from eating shit."

Chaos Moon nodded. "Got it. Let’s go!"

And so, we used our return scrolls and teleported back to the city after leaving behind a couple of players to steer the warships. After we informed our allied guilds about the crisis, they generously offered their aid and teleported to Dark Moon City to assist in the defense as well. No matter how weak the enemy might be, 1.5 million troops wasn’t the kind of number anyone could ignore.

……

Swhoosh!

I appeared in a flash in Dark Moon City. He Yi, Beiming Xue, Li Chengfeng, Murong Mingyue, Gui Guzi and more flashed into existence as well.

"Guild leader! You’ve finally returned!"

A Dragonlight Cavalryman who had died early in the naval battle greeted us with a smile and said, "The battle is about to begin in a couple of minutes, so you are just on time! The shameless Hegemon Palace plotted to take our city while we’re gone, but I bet they didn’t expect us to end our Nation War as quickly as we did!"

"Haha, you’re right. Now let’s head up the walls and take a look, shall we?"

"Yeah!"

I summoned the Armored Ice Qilin Horse and led a platoon of elite Dragonlight Cavalrymen up the walls. As a Rank 9 castle, Dark Moon City’s walls were just as impressive as Dawn City’s. They were made from grayish white stones that I had no knowledge of, and every arrow tower had a gigantic metal head of a bone dragon carved into its structure. It made them look a lot deadlier.

From my elevated position, I could see that the plains were overflowing with players with red IDs. Mad Dragon and Flower Room had joined hands with Hegemon Palace, but Hegemon Palace was their head. The latter was one of the Top 10 guilds of China. Using the fame to his advantage, Wang Dongliang had made mass recruitments and expanded his guild’s size to almost 800k players. To give an example of how impressive their number was, Hegemon Palace had more than 100 subguilds in Sky City alone. Of course, noobs were just that, noobs, no matter how numerous they were. In any battle, they might crumble under the slightest pressure.

"Pillar of the Nation has already turned in his token. The city is theirs if they manage to occupy it in 10 hours."

Li Chengfeng checked the time and said, "Heh, these bastards sure know how to pick an inopportune time. It’s already 8 pm and night, and most of us have been online for tens of hours straight. They were clearly waiting to strike at our weakest moment, these shameless bastards…"

Xu Yang replied with a reassuring smile, "Don’t worry, we aren’t fighting alone this time. Hmph hmph, I’m pretty sure we’ll destroy their so-called 1.5 million troops if every guild here dispatches even 25% of their troops."

"Mn!"

……

A lone rider rode up to us while we were talking. It was none other than the vice leader of Hegemon Palace, Little Piglet!

Once he came within hearing range, Little Piglet reined in his mount, kept his Vajra active and said to us with a smile, "Please don’t shoot my head, archers! I’m not afraid even if you do!"

I dismounted and planted a foot on a stone brick. Then, I leaned forward a little and asked, "Little Piglet, how curious to see you here instead of the Nation War happening at Eternal Love City. Aren’t you afraid that your despicable actions will be criticized by our playerbase?"

Little Piglet shrugged. "I am but a servant to my master, and that master is Hegemon Palace right now. It is my responsibility to fulfill my master’s wishes, not to decide who Hegemon Palace shall face in battle. Brother Lu Chen, as a show of my respect toward your unyielding will during the War of Dawn City, I have come to inform you that Hegemon Palace shall launch an all-out attack on Dark Moon City in ten minutes. Be prepared."

Suddenly, Li Chengfeng stepped on the edge of an arrow tower and surrounded himself with three cyan swords, activating his Great Earth Transformation. Then, he leaped down to the ground and used the momentum to shoot toward Little Piglet like an arrow!

A cold glint shone from his blade. He kicked off the surprise attack with Dragonbone Flurry!

"Fuck!"

Shocked, Little Piglet raised his sword in defense but only managed to parry the first strike of the triple-hit skill. Next, Li Chengfeng hit him with Cyan Dragon Horn and dealt massive amounts of damage!

MISS!

27272!

31928!

41828!

Incredibly, Little Piglet didn’t die from the combo thanks to his buffs. After knocking Li Chengfeng backward with a punch to the chest, he withdrew to the back while empowering himself with Strength of Divine Arms and healing himself with Wind of Recovery. He then pointed a finger at Li Chengfeng and swore angrily, "This is despicable, Li Chengfeng! You don’t kill the messenger!"

Li Chengfeng arrogantly raised his sword and replied with a grin, "Lu Chen is too important to cut down a messenger like you, so it’s up to me to teach you a small lesson!"