A system announcement pinged as Gui Guzi pierced Wild King’s throat and stole 10% of his contribution points. The guild leader’s death also signaled Nation Guardian’s complete defeat in the battle of Hot Sand Forest. It was but the natural outcome. Nation Guardian didn’t hold any advantage, be it quality or quantity. Nearly 4 million players were scattered throughout the map, and they were all the elites of the China server. Nation Guardian didn’t even get the benefit of timely and continuous reinforcements, which we did. They never stood a chance.

Thud!

Another Temple Guard died as their spear spiraled across the air before thudding against the ground, blood slowly sliding down its blade and becoming one with the soil. It took less than 4 hours to annihilate Nation Guardian completely!

……

While looting the equipment on the ground, He Yi said in the guild channel, "Don’t grow lax just because we beat one Nation Guardian. I received word from reliable sources that ten guilds centered around Flames of War, the third strongest guild on the Guild Ranking of Cyan Earth City are marching our way right now. They number over 5 million players, which is almost as big as our army. This one will be a hard fight for sure!"

I was currently sitting on a banyan tree branch and leaning against the trunk with my hands placed at the back of my head. Sitting in front of me was a beautiful girl with long, pale legs wearing a suit of exquisite armor and wielding a glazy sword. Currently, she was swinging her legs idly and humming a song I didn’t recognize like a lazy cat.

"You are a guild leader, you know. Don’t you think you’re being a bit too lazy?" I shot Lin Yixin a look.

She narrowed her eyes and scoffed out loud. "Says the Little Heavenly King who left the battlefield and climbed up here to hide from the hot weather. I don’t even know what to say anymore."

I shrugged. "Well, this battle is already won. I don’t want to compete against my fellow compatriots for contribution points when I already have so much. They’ll scorn me for my greed."

"You heard Sister Eve, don’t let your guard down. God of War has gone to deal with Earth Tiger City and Greedy Wolf City’s combined army, while Flames of War’s Ironscale is coming to reinforce Hot Sand City with 5 million troops. The scale alone makes our battle with Nation Guardian look like a warm up. I also received word from my scouts that around 100 Cyan Earth City guilds had met up with Flames of War’s army in the middle of their march, so it’s not impossible that their total troop count may exceed 10 million, or almost 20% of India’s playerbase. You’d better watch out…"

"Ten million, huh?"

I clenched Chill of the Nine Provinces’ grip and chuckled. "That’s perfect. Ten million is just big enough an army to make it an interesting challenge. Plus, we have a secure line of reinforcements this time, so we can rally ten million players in under an hour if necessary. Once we’ve taken out their ten-million-strong army, Cyan Earth City won't be able to do shit anymore!"

Lin Yixin giggled. "Fine, you may have a point. Cyan Earth City wouldn’t dare to send more than 50% of their main forces to reinforce Hot Sand City unless they want to risk losing their own main city to the three border cities. So far, Hot and Sour Noodles and your strategy is working wonderfully in our favor."

I shrugged again. "Don’t praise me. Most of the effort was Uncle Zhang Chun’s. The only one I really contacted was Who Will Fight Me of Chaotic 27."

"Huh? Why are you so humble today?" Lin Yixin asked while cocking her head.

I sucked in a deep breath. "A man must be as receptive as an echoing canyon…"

"Pooh! Like hell you are!"

"..."

It was at this moment He Yi passed by our tree with a retinue of Dragonlight Cavalry. When she looked up and saw us, she burst into an uncontrollable giggle before chiding, "What are you two doing up there? Come down so I can speak with you!"

I obeyed and flipped down the 5-meter-tall tree gracefully. Lin Yixin also did the same thing. The glimpse of her long, full legs nearly caused the Dragonlight Cavalry to salivate there and then.

"What’s wrong, Eve?" I asked her.

He Yi replied while curling her lips, "I just want you two to be more serious since there’s still a long way to go. Also, you both heard that Flames of War’s Ironscale has rallied an army of almost ten million, right? They’re riding full speed toward us from Soaring Flame Desert right now, and they’re expected to reach Hot Sand Forest in two hours. That’s why I came here to discuss strategy with you. Do you want to wait until they arrive, or do you want to take the fight to them?"

I fell silent for a moment before inquiring Yiyi, "What is your opinion, Yiyi?"

Lin Yixin replied while gazing into the distance, "I don’t see why we can’t wait until they arrive, but we can’t let them reach us undisturbed. I suggest that we send out a strike force to harass them, preferably one strong enough to cut a couple of holes in their formation. That will demoralize them enough that they can’t help but be slaughtered when they finally reach Hot Sand Forest!"

I nodded agreeably. "Mn, Yiyi’s idea is an excellent one!"

He Yi asked, "How should we go about this exactly?"

I thought for a moment before replying, "Okay, we’ll do it this way. Eighth-promotion players could command a max party of 1000 players, 2000 for Famous Generals, and 4000 for Divine Generals. Therefore, Little Gui, Eve, Yiyi and my four Divine Generals will command a party of 4000 each—that’s 16k cavalrymen in total—pass through Dragonbone Mountain Range and intercept Flames of War. With our Divine General Skills and Famous General Skills, there is absolutely no reason we cannot punch through their formation and give them a taste of terror, especially since Gui Guzi has Shennong Tastes Grass, and I, the Xuanyuan Art. Their chances of annihilating our strike force are next to nil.

“Also, I heard that Breeze and Rain has just logged out of the game to use the toilet, eat, sleep and so on, you know the drill. He has been online for an ungodly amount of time after all. There won’t be a better time to take out his allies. What do you all think?"

He Yi and Lin Yixin looked pleased at the plan. "Very well, we’ll do as you say. Let’s begin immediately, shall we?"

"Alright!"

We began mustering our troops. Xu Yang and Du Thirteen were left behind to command the defense. He Yi, Gui Guzi and I formed a 4000-man party of Dragonlight Cavalry each. Chaos Moon, Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust were in my party, Li Chengfeng and High Fighting Spirits were in Gui Guzi’s party, and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun was in He Yi’s party. Although we were only 12k strong, every single one of us was an elite of elites.

Obviously, Lin Yixin brought 4000 Kui Dragon Cavalrymen with her. Their stats were inferior to the Dragonlight Cavalry, but it wasn’t such a big difference that it was questionable, especially since Lin Yixin’s Bombshell buffed everyone’s stats by 80%. Long story short, our cavalries were more or less equal in strength.

……

A tremor coursed through the foot of Dragonbone Mountain Range as we passed through it. Soon, we were riding on the domain of Cyan Earth City.

Less than half an hour later, a sea of red names appeared on the horizon. They were none other than the Cyan Earth City army marching to reinforce Hot Sand City. We couldn’t see Flames of War from where we were, but that was only natural. The enemy was ten million strong after all. Although players didn’t have to space themselves as much as the real armies in ancient times, ten million was still a ridiculous number. The entire army stretched almost twenty kilometers long, and to find a single guild among all these players was harder than this mission. That was why I considered but ultimately gave up the idea of swooping down from above and assassinating Ironscale.

"What do we do? I don’t see Flames of War anywhere," asked Gui Guzi.

I gazed at the distant army and said, "The troops we’re seeing are their vanguard, and most of these players belong to the 12th strongest Indian guild. It’s unfortunate that we can’t hit Flames of War right away, but the plan stays the same. We’ll hit them from the sides and carve a path through their whole army. This is guerilla warfare, we are only meant to harass, so don’t try to linger. Gui Guzi and I will act as the points, and Eve and Yiyi the secondary points right behind us. Everyone else should all stay as compact as possible so they don’t get dragged away during the charge. Players at the periphery should immediately move to the center if their HP falls below 40%. Finally, try and stay within range of me and Little Gui so we can heal you with our skills!"

Everyone nodded their heads in unison.

Both Gui Guzi and my skill had an effective radius of 1000 yards, or a surface area of 1 million times 3.1415926535. It meant that theoretically speaking, we could heal over 3 million players at once. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen especially since we would be on the move. We would be lucky to heal even 100k players.

……

"Kill!"

Gui Guzi and I led the way as the Dragonlight and Kui Dragon Cavalrymen punched through the enemy’s sides before they could react. Because the enemy wasn’t part of the main force, we chose not to use our Divine General Skills or our Ancient Divine Skills to conserve our Divine Energy Points.

We barely met any resistance. Less than five minutes later, the Dragonlight Cavalry had emerged on the other side of the enemy’s formation, leaving behind a trail of tens of thousands of corpses.

Whoosh!

A group of Dragonlight Cavalry raised their shields to protect themselves when they saw a spear beam flying their way. The attacker was a youngster with an AoE skill, but since the Dragonlight Cavalry he was attacking belonged to Gui Guzi’s party, he only managed to deal a couple thousand damage to each person. A 225% boost to both Attack and Defense was no joke after all. The youngster exclaimed in shock, "What the hell is this Defense! All archers, use Shock Arrows to stun them! Mages, melt them down with your magic!"

I hurriedly turned around and ordered, "Turn around and punch through their formation once more!"

The Dragonlight Cavalry at the front immediately turned around to rescue their stunned or Trapping Net’d teammates. The only way to teach the enemy a lesson was through overwhelming power!

The enemy reacted to the youngster’s command quickly. An entire row of mages showed up and started blasting away with Touches of the Dragonkiss and Galaxy Storms. Less than half a minute later, nearly 10000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen had dropped to low health. They did their best to cut down the mages blasting away at their faces, but it wouldn’t be enough unless we helped them.

"Little Gui!"

I shouted, "Time to heal!"

Gui Guzi galloped all the way to the center of the pinned group before activating Heavenly River Transformation all of a sudden. The next moment, a pair of bloody wings spread behind his back, and Shennong Tastes Grass enveloped every ally within 1000 yards of him. The green 300k+ healing number rising above everyone’s head made the Cyan Earth City players feel like killing themselves.