"Pooh!"

Little Piglet’s voice trailed behind him as he galloped away to safety. "A Divine General bullying a mere Famous General? You sure have no shame, dragon warrior! Just you wait, our army will trample over your city… Well, to be honest, it could be the other way around, but eh, whatever, I’m just a mercenary carrying out my business…"

I laughed. Little Piglet was a strange guy of conflicting emotions. He was greedy as fuck, but he also had the strength to support said greed. The fact was, Li Chengfeng wouldn’t have been able to dominate him the way he did earlier if he wasn’t a Divine General. After all, Little Piglet had proven time and time again that he was a super-tier expert.

……

At the distance, Hegemon Palace’s forces took the center while Mad Dragon and Flower Room provided support from the wings. They weren’t their whole army though. There were almost a hundred smaller guilds who had formed a united army and come to attack Dark Moon City as well. Their reason was simple: to perform the extraordinary act of conquering our city and become famous as a result. Right now, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was as dominant as the sun above one’s head, and our performance during the Nation Wars earned countless envy from every corner of the world. Naturally, a lot of people would prefer to see us gone than flourish. We lived in a high-pressure society these days, and there were few places to vent those frustrations. A human’s capacity to become twisted far exceeded your or my imagination.

After Li Chengfeng returned to the city, he shot me a smile and said, "An invasion army of 1.5 million! This is a grand event, Lu Chen! How do you plan to defeat them?"

I unsheathed my sword and declared, "It’s simple. We just need to get out there and kill them all!"

He Yi hurriedly grabbed me before I could do anything rash. "Calm down, you! What kind of strategy is that…"

However, Stranger of Three Lifetimes chuckled beside us and said, "Our forces are absolutely stronger than the enemies, and the Battle of Black Sea is over already. Moreover, assuming that we rally every player available in our guilds, we can assemble an army of 2 million at least, meaning that we actually outnumber them. Therefore, Lu Chen’s suggestion to just head out there and kick their asses is actually perfectly viable."

"But that’ll be so boring! We should spice things up a little…" Lin Yixin giggled. "I think we should send some troops to the back and cut off their retreat. Only then we head out and force them to choose between staying behind and being killed, or teleporting away to safety, hehe…"

Most players believed that being slaughtered to the point of escape via teleportation was extremely humiliating, so generally they wouldn’t do so unless they had no other choice. No one liked being labeled a coward after all. Of course, a tactical retreat was a different story.

……

"Well, that would certainly work, but…" He Yi looked hesitant, but in the end she chose to voice her opinion, "I personally think we should just let Hegemon Palace, Mad Dragon and Flower Room attack the city while we play the defender…"

"Huh? But why, Sister Eve?" Lin Yixin exclaimed in surprise.

He Yi giggled. "Do you remember what happened last time? Hall of Immortality, Throne Seeker and Rose of the Holy Domain launched a massive assault on Dark Moon City, but because they lost, all those deaths helped to level up our city twice. The player death count is how the war experience is calculated, and it’s also why the rewards for the War of Dawn City was way higher than the Battle of Black Sea. Therefore, the more enemies we kill near to the city, the better the reward for Dark Moon City. What do you think, Yiyi?"

"I see. I get what you mean now, hehe~"

Lin Yixin nodded with a smile. "Alright then, we’ll let them come close to the city before attacking them. This is a good chance to check out the defenses of a Rank 9 castle too!"

"Yeah."

……

The Ghost Arrow Towers of Dark Moon City did not shoot normal arrows. Instead, they shot bony arrows that were imbued with some sort of red light that almost looked like the undead energy. As for how powerful they were exactly, we were about to find out using Hegemon Palace’s players as test subjects.

I raised my sword and shouted, "Brothers and sisters of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, brothers and sisters of our allies, keep the gates protected and don’t exit the city no matter what! Elite cavalry, form up inside the city and prepare to launch a counterattack at a moment’s notice! Archers and mages on the walls, make sure that you are fully stocked up on potions and consumables, and if you’re not, they’re available for purchase within the city! Finally, make sure that all your equipment is repaired! The battle will begin in ten minutes!"

Just as I predicted, Wang Dongliang spurred his mount to the front ten minutes later and raised his sword high up in the air. He let out a laugh before declaring, "Brothers and sisters, in this era of emerging heroes, the world does not belong to any one person, and it never will. So let us ride together and defeat Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! Let us conquer Dark Moon City and make it the cornerstone of our dreams of becoming the ruler of the world!"

Countless Hegemon Palace players roared their support and charged. A lot of them were cavalry!

"Pooh! What nonsense! If a guild like theirs could become a king of guilds, then it would truly be the end of China! Hmph!" Stranger of Three Lifetimes huffed angrily.

It wasn’t long before the enemy troops approached our city. The closest ones were less than 100 yards away from our walls.

I smiled. "Ranged players, you may attack the enemy now. The more players you kill, the better the reward you’ll get when the siege ends, so do your best to slaughter the idiots of Hegemon Palace, Flower Room and Mad Dragon! They are worth more than any experience you could possibly grind in any leveling map!"

"Mn!"

Beiming Xue nodded, drew her bow and activated her stratagem, Bow God. Then, she let loose Spiraling Arrow Blade + Evil Spirit Volley combo straight into a group of enemies.

Hundreds of thousands of attacks soared over the walls as our mages, archers and even bards, tamers and tacticians fired their offensive skills at the enemies. The enemy couldn’t get to them because of the walls, so they were free to pour down an absolutely tremendous amount of firepower!

Boom boom boom!

The mage spell, Galaxy Storm, was the main actor of this stage. Countless mages chanted the spell in unison and tossed it at the enemy players, shredding them into pieces. Not a single person was able to break through the line of fire.

Bang!

Stranger of Three Lifetimes’ scepter turned cold as she fired two successive Ice Blasts into a group of Steel Needle Porcupine Cavalrymen, freezing them in place. Another two Galaxy Storms later, the 30+ riders all dropped dead without exception!

"Holy shit, Momo’s ranged attack power is crazy…" My mouth twitched a little at the merciless slaughter.

Pleased by my praise, Stranger of Three Lifetimes looked up and said, "Envy me?"

I asked her, "Hey, do you want to join Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls? I can make you a vice leader…"

"Ah, hmm, I…" Stranger of Three Lifetimes actually looked tempted for a moment.

Eyes Like Water immediately grabbed the hilt of her sword and said quietly, "Don’t you dare seduce our guild leader! Blazing Hot Lips cannot be without its head! Lu Chen, I’m going to hurt you if you keep acting like this!"

This time, it was Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust’s turn to grow anxious and grab their weapons. "If you hurt big brother Lu Chen, then we’ll hurt you back!"

Stranger of Three Lifetimes burst into a giggle. "OMG, the girls of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls are so cute! Are you interested in joining Blazing Hot Lips? I can promise you a good life, an endless amount of gold and handsome men!"

"Fuck…" High Fighting Spirits’ mouth kept twitching.

Lin Yixin rolled her eyes. "Can you stop? This is so silly!"

I said, "Yeah, you’re all so silly!"

Lin Yixin glared at me with an exasperated smile on her face. "I’m talking about you, you shameless bastard!"

Everyone laughed heartily at that. The tense atmosphere that permeated the walls due to the siege had disappeared before we knew it.

……

The situation lasted about half an hour or so. Finally, after Hegemon Palace lost almost 10000 Steel Needle Porcupine Cavalrymen, their engineers got close enough to prop the cloud ladders to the walls under their magic knights’ protection. Hegemon Palace was climbing up.

Chiang!

I unsheathed my weapon and declared with a smile, "We stopped even the Northern Alliance from taking Dawn City, and these noobs are way weaker than them! Fighters, this is your chance to collect your contribution points. Do not hold back and kill everyone who gets into your range!"

A Level 155 magic knight had already scaled up the walls before I even finished giving my speech. He shouted, "I am the captain of Hegemon Palace First Platoon!"

Du Thirteen immediately responded with a Blaze to the face, but unfortunately the skill hit the shield instead of the person and was greatly weakened as a result, dealing only 6893 damage.

High Fighting Spirits laughed heartily. "Thirteen, move aside, please!"

The barbarian warrior swung his hammer and sent the magic knight’s shield flying, allowing Du Thirteen to land Double Slash + Barrier Break right through the chest and kill the poor guy where he stood.

It was chaos beneath the walls, and when I looked down I saw Hegemon Palace’s mages and archers throwing their spells at us from below. However, they weren’t deploying any siege weapons so far, so they were no threat to our walls. I made no changes since the current exchange was advantageous to us.

……

Swhoosh!

I let out the Phantom Wolf King and allowed it to wreak havoc on the ground with Purgatory Storm. It was a nightmare to all Hegemon Palace unfortunate enough to stand in its path. Its deadly claws could tear apart even the metal armor of high-level knights, and the mages and archers were even less of an issue.

The battle continued for almost three hours. The siege battle was still continuing as fierce as it was at the beginning.

After Lin Yixin knocked over a group of enemies with Ice Flame Slash, she let out a cute yawn and looked at me. "I’m getting sleepy. Can we end this sooner?"

"What do you want to do?"

"I’m going to send out our cavalry and launch a counterattack."

"Sure!"

I nodded curiously. Snowy Cathaya and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had fought separately during the Battle of Black Sea, so I hadn’t had the chance to witness their elite cavalry in action!

……

Lin Yixin led Purple Marquis and Zi Chuanyu down to the ground. A while later, almost ten thousand fighters stood together in one place and summoned their mounts under Lin Yixin’s order!