Hot Sand Forest was lush, hot and wet. The summer sun burning above our heads only made the experience even more unbearable.

Right now, I was lying on top of a fallen tree trunk and beneath a broadleaf palm tree. I was activating Dark Pupils and watching the horizon for any sign of activity.

A tiny cyan snake slithered down the vine beside me and stared at me with its predatory, brown eyes.

Thud!

However, there was the swish of a blade, and the little thing was sent flying far, far away by Lin Yixin. She sat down beside me and asked, "How much longer do we have to wait?"

"About ten minutes or so. We’re gonna wait until they show up…"

"But why?"

"I don’t understand what you mean? How are we going to ambush them if they don’t show up?"

"No, I mean are we seriously going to wait right here?" Lin Yixin curled her lips. "Look at our troops. There’s not even enough cover to hide their heads. Even if Wild King is completely blind, this ambush spot is about as obvious as it gets. Also, there are less than ten thousand of us. If what the scout said is true, the enemy is almost a million strong. How on earth are we going to beat them?"

I faced toward her completely and held her hand gently. "I never said that we’re going to ambush them here, you know?"

Lin Yixin’s mouth fell open. "Huh? Where is the real ambush then?"

From nearby, Li Chengfeng and Purple Marquis also asked, "Yeah, where is the real ambush? And why are we here instead of there?"

I smiled. "Long story short, we and the ten thousand troops here are bait. I’ve sent Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon and the Dragonlight Cavalry to a much better spot about 1 km behind us. When Nation Guardian shows up later, we’re going to fight them for around five minutes before pretending to lose. Once they enter our ambush zone, we’ll surround them with our cavalrymen and hit them from all sides with archers and mages. That’s the best way to maximize our damage and minimize our losses. This is all pretty basic, you know? Do I look like the type who prefers to fight a costly battle unless there’s no way to avoid it?"

Purple Marquis stared at me. "Basic my ass! How did our guild leader ever fall for a devious man like you?!"

Li Chengfeng chuckled. "Think of it this way: could a lesser man really win the Beautiful Little Pepper’s heart?"

Lin Yixin blushed, but she quickly recovered and chided them all. "Just because this is a feint doesn’t mean you guys get to slack off, understand? I want you all to fight like your life depends on it during that five-minute engagement. Once the enemy enters our ambush zone, we’re going to annihilate all 150k of Wild King’s prided Divine Elephant Cavalry. With luck, we may even scare Cyan Earth City to cease their reinforcements completely!"

"Yeah!"

……

A few minutes later, the earth beneath our feet started to quake unnaturally. The Divine Elephant Cavalry was the only cavalry in the world that would cause earthquake-like tremors like this. A huge group of players appeared from the eastern canyon, and leading at the forefront was none other than the guild leader of Nation Guardian, Wild King himself. The guy looked absolutely furious even though we hadn’t engaged him yet. He was probably still pissed off by the fact that I had killed him within the first couple hours of his trip to the Ruins of the Gods, thus sealing off his chances of learning an Ancient Divine Skill almost permanently.

"Prepare for battle!"

I said while staring at the hostile army, "Archers, get ready. Beiming Xue, do you see that Level 213 magic knight beside Wild King called ‘Heart of Time’?"

"Yep, I see him. What about him?" Beiming Xue asked beneath a large canopy.

I replied, "Wild King is a straightforward guy with almost no guile whatsoever, so there’s a high chance he won’t be able to see through our tactic. Once he’s baited, he’ll never let go until he’s dead. On the other hand, Heart of Time is the vice leader and Wild King’s voice of reason. Our tactic is hardly so great that he wouldn’t be able to see through it. Therefore, I want you to kill him as soon as possible. It also serves as a good way to piss off Wild King and lure him into our ambush zone!"

"Okay, big brother! I like missions like this!"

"Me too. In fact, I’ll assist you with Coiling Dragon Revolution. Okay?"

"Okay!"

The savagery on Wild King’s face grew increasingly clear as he and the Divine Elephant Cavalry approached us. When he was a suitable amount of distance away from us, he raised his spear and shouted, "Brothers and sisters, the China server has convinced the idiots of Greedy Wolf City and Earth Tiger City to attack us! It is only right that we repay the ‘favor’ by killing them and rescuing Hot Sand City from their predicament, don’t you agree!?"

The Divine Elephant Cavalry all raised their weapons and roared, "Kill!"

……

Whoosh!

I abruptly sliced the broad leaf covering my person and raised my weapon, shouting, "Go, go, go!"

Swhoosh!

Beiming Xue was already shooting her Shock Arrow even before I finished my shout. Then, she flicked her Evil Spirit Volley at Heart of Time and dealt a ton of consecutive damage—

89277!

90881!

88983!

……

However, Heart of Time was pretty tanky, and he didn’t die to Beiming Xue’s combo. So, I tossed Chill of the Nine Provinces at him and activated Coiling Dragon Revolution.

"What the hell?!" Wild King’s eyes widened as he shouted, "Protect Heart of Time now!"

A couple Divine Elephant Cavalrymen immediately moved into position and raised their shield. Unfortunately, they underestimated the penetrative power of Coiling Dragon Revolution too much!

Bang!

Shields were sent flying as Chill of the Nine Provinces pierced through shield, armor, flesh and bone multiple times until it finally found Heart of Time’s heart. It punched a huge hole at the center of the man’s chest before spinning back to my hand. Heart of Time could only widen his eyes, let out a dull groan and fall to his death after the skill deleted the last chunk of his HP. Since countless main cities were dragged into this war—enough that this Nation War was categorized as a continental war—Heart of Time was forcefully logged out of the game. He wouldn’t be able to revive until the Nation War was over.

……

"Well done!" I said with a smile before catching my weapon and charging together with Lin Yixin, Li Chengfeng and the others.

Myriad Swords Obliteration + Burning Blade Slash combo that instakilled around a hundred Divine Elephant Cavalrymen instantly, regenerating 1 Divine Energy Point in the process. Then, with the Fusion Armor wrapped tightly around my body, I charged into an enemy group and continued my slaughter. Wherever my Chill of the Nine Provinces traveled, there was only an icy trail of death and devastation.

Li Chengfeng, Purple Marquis, Xu Yang and more all unleashed their full power and killed as many enemies as they could with their several thousand elite cavalrymen. Their skills caused huge cyclones of energy and shredded countless Divine Elephant Cavalrymen to pieces. This was the power of the China server. As a whole, we had entire battalions of pinnacle cavalrymen with such an insane amount of AoE skills that common skills like Barrier Break and Ultimate Strength Break were used as an afterthought. The sheer number of signature moves alone tormented our enemies greatly.

When five minutes were up, I waved my weapon and shouted, "Withdraw! Withdraw! There’s too many of them!"

The symbol of Gan Jiang and Mo Ye shining beneath her feet, Lin Yixin unleashed a Guard-ignoring Ice Flame Slash and shredded an entire group of Divine Elephant Cavalry to pieces. Then, she let out a bell-like giggle and backed away without any hesitation.

Li Chengfeng and Purple Marquis were no less an acting expert than her, and they were able to play the role of a "routing army" to perfection. Plus, it wasn’t like we didn’t lose dozens of troops to the enemy. The Divine Elephant Cavalry were Nation Guardian’s best, not to mention that even a lamb was deadly if they were given sharp claws.

"The fuckers are running away! Don’t let a single one of them escape even if we must chase them all the way to Hot Sand City!" Wild King roared furiously.

As expected, the possibility of an ambush hadn’t even crossed the guild leader’s mind. The near instantaneous death of his right-hand man, Heart of Time, had clearly traumatized the poor guy.

……

The 200000-strong Divine Elephant Cavalry cut quite the imposing figure as they spread out across the whole Hot Sand Forest. It almost felt like they were deforesting the map as they moved.

We reached the ambush zone in no time. When I saw Gui Guzi, He Yi, Lian Xin, High Fighting Spirits and everyone else waiting outside the forest. I sent He Yi a message, "C’mon Eve, I thought you were better than this. We as actors must respect our profession, and right now you guys are playing the role of the ambusher. What kind of ambusher just stands in the open and lets their prey spot them?"

"Fine…" He Yi shot me a helpless smile before leading the others back into the forest.

……

The last shred of tranquility in this forest was shattered by the thundering sound of our and the enemy’s hooves.

"It is time! Turn back and attack the enemy!" I ordered.

The 10000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen I was leading immediately turned around and charged back toward the enemy. He Yi, Gui Guzi, High Fighting Spirits and everyone else inside the forest burst out of their hiding spots and surrounded the Divine Elephant Cavalry from all sides. I could even hear Lian Xin ordering in her sweet, melodious voice, "Ranged parties, Far Shot and loose!"

The forest lit up for an instant as countless fireballs, wind blades, icicles and arrows flew into the air. They rained down on the tightly packed Divine Elephant Cavalry like artillery shells.

"Shit! We’ve been ambushed, guild leader!" a corps commander shouted.

Wild King shouted back, "There is nothing to be afraid of! Tell our ranged parties to catch up with us as soon as possible! Ambush or not, we’re going to tear all our enemies to shreds!"

"The guild leader is wise!"

……

Before he could even finish his sentence though, High Fighting Spirits fired his Xing Tian’s Defiance into a group of Divine Elephant Cavalry. The Ancient Divine Skill instantly one-shot all of them. Right after that, He Yi stabbed into another group of enemies and swung her Godslaying Blade left and right. Because she was empowered by Chengying and Hanguang, everyone who was even touched by the beam of energy was one-shot without question.

Earlier, we had spoken with the other guilds and agreed that Ancient Sword and Snowy Cathaya would face the enemy head-on, while Blazing Hot Lips, The Monarch Descends and more would cover the flanks. That was what they were doing right now. Stranger of Three Lifetimes and Eyes Like Water were attacking the enemy’s flanks, and they had already successfully separated the tail of Nation Guardian’s army from the body. Wild King probably still hadn’t realized that he and around 500k of his elites were completely surrounded, and the reinforcements he was waiting for weren’t going to show up.

The frontline was full of top-tier cavalrymen such as the Dragonlight Cavalry, Kui Dragon Cavalry, Zephyr Cavalry, Purple Dragon Cavalry and more. Everyone had been training hard for the day we could take revenge against our enemies, and now the time had come to show them the fruits of our labor. If Nation Guardian was so kind as to wash their necks before we killed them, it was only right that we accepted their contribution points. Once Nation Guardian was dead, we would wait and see if Cyan Earth City would send more reinforcements. Currently, my plan was to hit the enemy’s elites with our own and kill them all!

……

By the time the battle dragged on for two hours, Wild King’s morale had hit rock bottom. No matter how elite the Divine Elephant Cavalry was, there was little they could do in an ambush and without support. This wasn’t without mentioning that we had countless Famous Generals and Divine Generals, and nearly ten Ancient Divine Skill owners in total. Every once in a while, Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust would carve a hole in the Divine Elephant Cavalry’s formation with their Tiger Wing Slash and Dog God Slash, and I myself had used Xuanyuan Slash once. The enemy’s two S Rank Ancient Divine Skill owners had been killed by Lin Yixin and Li Chengfeng respectively as well. Long story short, we had utterly crushed Wild King’s confidence, and Nation Guardian had lost their will to fight completely. It was a massacre.

"Ah, screw it. The heart is there, but the strength is not!"

Wild King muttered as he sat dejectedly on a bush and watched his players’ corpses. He no longer even had the will to resist.