"How many Cloudpiercing Claws does Ancient Sword have, Lu Chen?" Hot and Sour Noodles asked excitedly. "With this item, sieging the Impassable Great Wall is no longer a pipedream…"

I replied smilingly, "The materials used to make it, 10 Steel and 5 Wild Silkworm Thread, aren’t very rare. They’re both Rank 8 materials only, which is why Ancient Sword has over one hundred thousand of them in the warehouse. How many did you bring, third uncle?"

Third uncle smiled. "All one hundred and seventy thousand of them just like you requested, guild leader!"

"Okay!"

I nodded. "We’ll keep 10k to ourselves and distribute the remaining 160k to our allies!"

"Mn…"

……

Beside me, Lin Yixin moved closer before whispering beside my ears, "It isn’t like you at all to donate 160k items for free, Little Cheat. The Cloudpiercing Claw is quite valuable, you know…"

I put an arm around her shoulder and whispered back smilingly, "Don’t you see, Yiyi? There’s at least ten million troops on the Impassable Great Wall, and they all deal extra damage thanks to their height advantage. How many players do you think can scale the fortification and survive to see the end? By giving away the Cloudpiercing Claws, I’m saving my own people’s lives…"

"Ah…" Lin Yixin’s mouth fell open in realization. "OMG, you’re such a shameless bastard!"

"I can give Snowy Cathaya 50k Cloudpiercing Claws, Yiyi."

"No way, I’ll take 5000 only, and no more than that!"

"..."

……

It didn’t take long for the items to be distributed, and of all the guilds, Hegemon Palace was the one who grabbed the most Cloudpiercing Claws. Little Piglet put on his Cloudpiercing Claw and chuckled. "Its design looks pretty cool. Ancient Sword is overflowing with talent, I see…"

He Yi offered, "Do you want to join us, Little Piglet? I can make you a corps commander…"

Little Piglet beamed. "If you can offer me a basic salary, then I’m in!"

"Well, how much do you want?"

"A million RMB per month…"

I stepped out. "Maybe next time. Also, a million RMB can feed ten High Fighting Spirits, you know. Are you worth ten High Fighting Spirits?"

Little Piglet shook his head. "Nope!"

"Case in point. Now focus! We’re going to start the next assault in a moment!"

"Yeah."

At the side, Wang Dongliang stared at us in dumb silence. It was as if Little Piglet, He Yi and I had forgotten that he, Little Piglet’s current employer, still existed.

……

At the main camp, I spoke to Hot and Sour Noodles, "I probably don’t need to say this, but the Cloudpiercing Claw alone isn’t enough to deal a fatal blow to the enemy. It’s more of a complement to the main assault. So bring out the siege weapons, uncle, especially the battering rams. If climbing over this fortress is impossible, then we’ll destroy it at its roots and wipe it from the surface of the map! We’ll have our cavalry escort them to the walls!"

Hot and Sour Noodles nodded. "Mn!"

"Bring the cloud ladders as well. If we stack two of them on top of one another, it should be just enough to reach the top. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls will bring out our Black Tortoise Catapults and White Marsh Catapults to bombard the wall from the distance as well. We’ll crush the Japanese’s confidence through sheer firepower!"

"Haha, that is exactly what I was hoping to do!"

Half an hour later, the preparations were complete. Countless Catapults, Black Tortoise Catapults and White Marsh Catapults were lined outside the wall, and at least a thousand black battering rams were pushed to the front. The battering ram dealt an incredible amount of damage to a fortification, like a driller would do to a wall. It would definitely be able to punch a hole through the bottom of the Impassable Great Wall.

……

"Vice leader big brother!"

It was at this moment a disgruntled Heaven’s Rain shot me a question, "Why did you order the Dragonlight Cavalry to stand by for orders, and the Cyan Tiger Cavalry to risk their lives scaling the walls with the Cloudpiercing Claws?"

Diamond Dust was of the same mind. "Yeah, this isn’t fair, we don’t want to just stand around and do nothing…"

I hurriedly raised my arms placatingly and explained myself, "Calm down, taking down this fortification is just the first step of a long war. Once we’re past this location and into the plains, I promise you the Dragonlight Cavalry will get their spot in the limelight. That being said, I suppose that the Famous Generals can grab a set of Cloudpiercing Claws each and come with me. However, you must promise me that you won’t die in battle. If you find yourself cornered, then jump off the wall and let your brothers and sisters catch you! I repeat, don’t fucking die on me!"

That drew a laugh out of everyone. "Okay, got it!"

……

The assault formations were ready in no time. I and the 10000 Ancient Sword cavalrymen behind me all had Cloudpiercing Claws. I left most of the Dragonlight Cavalry out of this fight because the best resources should be used in the most important areas, and having them die while scaling the walls was neither the best use of the Dragonlight Cavalry nor the best for my heart. Also, I need them to keep Purple Grape City’s main cavalry in check just in case they were dispatched.

Chiang!

I unsheathed the Purple Ying Sword and growled, "Attack! Don’t let this tiny wall stop our advance!"

The cries of mounts filled the air, and nearly 300k China cavalry surged toward the Impassable Great Wall in a half-arc formation in the blink of an eye. There were too many combatants this time, so instead of the usual columns of troops you usually saw in a siege battle, we had a huge army that stretched for kilometers swarming toward the walls like a tidal wave.

……

On the walls, Red Maple watched the incoming army closely for a moment before raising his arm. "Archers and mages, don’t stop attacking the enemy! All siege weapons, lock onto the enemy’s siege weapons and stop them from getting close enough to attack us! Hmph, the time to destroy our enemy has arrived!"

An infinite amount of colorful lights filled the sky for a moment. The next moment, countless arrows and magic fell toward the ground like a torrent. The fortification was at least 500 meters wide, and the amount of players it could accommodate was too much to count. I didn’t even want to know how much surface area they could cover!

"Raise shield!" I shouted.

The players at the front immediately raised their shields above their heads and blocked the innumerable amount of arrows and magic spells. The height advantage greatly increased the power of the arrows, and magic was always threatening against a metal-armor class. Our players were doing okay, but Hegemon Palace’s players couldn’t claim the same thing. In just a moment, entire groups of players had perished in the blink of an eye.

The good news was that mounts gave us high movement speed. We reached the walls in just the blink of an eye, and down here the amount of attacks we could receive was limited.

"Alright, dismount and aim your Cloudpiercing Claws above you!" I ordered.

Everyone who had a Cloudpiercing Claw did as I said and locked onto a certain point of the wall. Then, they pressed the trigger button and fired its hook into the air. A few seconds later, the hooks embedded themselves into the bricks, and ten thousand players began climbing upward. Unfortunately, the Cloudpiercing Claw didn’t possess the pulling strength to haul a fighter’s heavy body all the way to the top.

Chiang!

I stabbed my sword into the wall with one hand and pulled myself upward with the other. It was much faster this way. Beside me, He Yi, Lion Yixin, Li Chengfeng and more emulated my example and were able to scale the walls much faster than normal as well.

……

"What… what is that?" the Japanese players on the walls exclaimed in surprise.

Red Maple said grimly, "Not good, they have some wall-scaling equipment. All high-level archers, move to the edge of the wall and shoot armor-piercing or stunning arrows. The rest of you, make sure you aim first before dropping the rocks and rolling logs! Also, anyone with a weapon that’s Heaven-grade or higher should try cutting the ropes!"

A group of melee fighters immediately pulled out their weapons and hit the Wild Silkworm Thread repeatedly. Unfortunately, their efforts proved to be futile. It would take a weapon on the same level as my Purple Ying Sword or higher to sever a Wild Silkworm Thread with near invulnerability.

Countless arrows peppered against our heads. Our response was to hold health potions in our mouths and continue climbing.

Swhoosh!

Suddenly, a giant rock dropped down from above and hit High Fighting Spirits square in the face. But despite losing over 30k HP, the prideful berserker stubbornly held on and glared daggers at his attackers. With a crumpled face, he barked, "Just you wait, you grandsons! Your daddy will be there to beat your ass real soon!"

Gui Guzi, Li Chengfeng, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and more could only stare at him in amazement. "Holy shit, this guy!"

……

Holding the rope with one hand and swinging the Purple Ying Sword with the other, I managed to slice two rocks in half before they could hit me. As much as I would like to emulate High Fighting Spirits’ bravery, the threat of being knocked off my grip or killed by the giant rocks was very real. If I slashed them in half though, the damage I took would be greatly decreased.

Suddenly, He Yi called out in warning, "Watch out, Lu Chen!"

I looked up and saw four or five archers aiming their arrows at me. One of them cackled evilly, "Yo, isn’t that the new champion of the WEL? Perfect! Stun him with Shock Arrows and kill him with armor-piercing arrows!"

Thud thud thud!

They shot faster than I could defend myself, so my face was covered in arrows a second later. I pulled them all out, pointed my left palm at them and growled, "You are courting death, you bastards!"

Swhoosh!

Golden energy swirled at the center of my palm. An instant later, a golden seal flew toward the top and hit the group of archers directly, killing all of them. Fucking archers. My Ancient Seal might not be powerful enough to one-shot a shielded mage or a tanky magic knight, but assassins and archers? I am the bane of your existence, fools!

……

"Move faster, Little Cheat! Be the first to occupy a section of the walls!" Lin Yixin said smilingly to me.

"Okay!"

I quickened my arm movements before pushing myself upward in one smooth motion. Right before I was about to land on the wall though, a beautiful figure suddenly rushed toward me with her weapon at the ready. It was the Ice Knight of God’s Domain, Cyan Frost!

Pa!

Cyan Frost swept my legs with a kick and threw me off-balance immediately. She then withdrew her leg and kicked out again while yelling, "Fall!"

Chiang!

I wasn’t about to let that happen, so I thrust my sword into the wall, pulled myself forward, and met Cyan Frost’s kick with a kick of my own.

Bang!

Cyan Frost staggered backward after the explosive exchange. I seized the opening to land my feet firmly on the wall walk before firing a dozen or so Ancient Seals in a go. Screams filled the air immediately!