A cool wind blew against a barren, darkened plain. It was currently shaking under the thundering hooves of rows and rows of elite cavalrymen. At this time, the only light that betrayed their presence was the fire exhaling from their mount’s nostrils. A total of 270k+ Sky City, Vanished God City and Wind City cavalrymen were launching a sneak attack against Sunset City while their allies kept Burning City and Chariot City busy.

……

Lin Yixin was riding right next to me on her Moonchaser Tiger as she said, "We’ve rested for two hours on the hills. Mad Dragon, Gods of Destruction and Hegemon Palace should have engaged Chariot City and Burning City by now. Things should go smoother for us now."

"Yeah." I nodded slightly.

It was at this moment a system announcement rang across the sky. It was the news we had all been waiting for a while—

Ding~!

System Announcement: Attention all players, player "Candlelight Shadow" (China) has successfully killed the Hot Sand City regent, Emero IX, and claimed the royal scepter. The player has used the royal scepter to occupy Hot Sand City for China. Vietnam players may retake the main city by claiming the royal scepter before the Nation War is over!

……

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun let out a snort before commenting, "Damn, this is the second time Candlelight Shadow managed to put his name on a system announcement after Seven Star City. Is he trying to use this to restore some of Candle Dragon’s former glory?"

Beside him, Peach Garden’s guild leader, Indigo Collar replied, "Hmph. So what if he’s the one who ‘officially’ took the city? Everyone knows that the occupation of Hot Sand City is a collective effort. If we hadn’t slain nearly 20 million enemies at the eastern front, forget taking the scepter for himself, he wouldn’t even be alive right now!"

I smiled. "Let’s not split hairs over something so trivial, shall we? The important thing here is that the China server is the one who took Hot Sand City. This marks the first time we managed to expand our domain since the beginning of Heavenblessed. In the near future, Hot Sand City will be our stepping stone to intimidate, fracture and weaken the players of the north. Our ultimate goal is to make China the ultimate ruler of the entire continent."

Indigo Collar asked, "Lu Chen, are you… trying to turn the other servers into our colonies and make them pay tribute? That… won’t be easy you know."

I erupted into laughter. "Colony? Are you kidding me? Even if the other servers are that prideless, there’s no way Eternal Moon would allow the enslavement of players to exist in their game, not to mention that civilization has long since evolved past the point where slavery was the norm! No, what I’m saying is just that we become the dominant force on the continent for a couple of months, or even a couple of years. Even in ancient times, it was impossible for one force to rule the world forever. Take Alexander, Caesar, and Genghis Khan for example. Each conqueror is only greater than the last, and yet their dominion was ultimately reclaimed by the natives. In the end, history is inevitable."

Indigo Collar nodded strongly. "You are right. Even just a short period of domination is a good enough prize for our years of passion!"

Eyes Like Water said smilingly, "I guess I’ll never understand a man’s world. All Momo wanted is for Blazing Hot Lips to accumulate more contribution points, gather more equipment, and increase our rank in the China Guild Ranking…"

High Fighting Spirits commented, "That’s pretty ambitious already, okay?"

We all chuckled at that.

……

It was at this moment Gui Guzi’s voice came from the front, "Boss Broken Halberd, there’s a hundred-man group of English cavalrymen ahead of us!"

I nodded. "Take your players with you and eliminate them as soon as possible. Everyone else, we ride at full speed. We’re only 10 minutes away from Sunset City now!"

Gui Guzi immediately swung his Spear of the Knight God and charged toward the enemy group with his 4000 Knight God–buffed Dragonlight Cavalrymen. It wasn’t long before bloodcurdling screams broke out from several hundred yards away from us. There was no chance the one hundred Sunset City players were going to survive the Dragonlight Cavalry’s charge, so they quickly turned into cold, dead bodies on the ground.

As we galloped, a magnificent city with a silver hue emerged from the horizon. It was none other than our objective. We also saw a tier 2 city on our right, but we ignored it for now because it wasn’t our primary target. Strong tier 1 main city first, weak tier 2 main city later.

……

When we reached within a thousand yards of the main city, we finally brandished our weapons beneath the moonlight. A magic knight on the walls felt his heart freeze for a second when he spotted us before shouting on top of his lungs, "We’ve been tricked! China’s true objective is us, not Burning City or Chariot City! Defend with all you got and send a rescue request to Burning City and Chariot City right now! They know what will happen if our city falls to the Chinese!"

Another person roared from the walls, "Archers, get ready to attack the enemy with Mountain Stagger Arrows and Spiraling Arrow Blades! I only spot cavalrymen among the invaders, meaning that they don’t have siege weapons or even cloud ladders to scale our walls! They won’t be able to breach our city quickly! Someone, muster our cavalry now and engage the enemy beneath our walls! With our archers, mages and priests’ support, our cavalry should be able to fight one against ten while we wait for reinforcements!"

Creak...

The heavy iron gate of the city opened, and tens of thousands of cavalrymen rode out to meet us. Although they hadn’t expected to show up this quickly, it was obvious that they were at least anticipating it. There was no way they would have this many high-level cavalrymen waiting at the gate otherwise.

……

Chiang!

I pulled out the Chill of the Nine Provinces from behind and raised it into the air, yelling, "Finish them in ten minutes and ride straight for the gate! All Ancient Divine Skill owners, follow me and prepare to use your Ancient Divine Skills on the gate! It must go down within half an hour for this raid to be a true success!"

Tens of thousands of Dragonlight, Kui Dragon and Zephyr Cavalrymen unsheathed their weapons at once. I regretted not bringing Warscar and Hickey’s Berserk Zephyr Cavalry with me—their presence would’ve ensured that the gate would go down in half the time it would normally take—but then again, this wasn’t their war to fight. It was one thing to have them help me while the China server was under attack, another to make them attack another server under China’s name. It would make the neutrality I promised them a sham. Moreover, the players of Protective Umbrella were my friends, not my subordinates. I didn’t have the right to mobilize them as I pleased. Finally, Protective Umbrella had settled down at their one and only territory at Black Coast. They would have their own business to deal with.

The ground thundered with the sound of hooves. Nearly a million English players had moved up their walls, drew their bows and fired their arrows at us. Arrows and magical spells rained down on our heads like a hailstorm while the Dragonlight Cavalry engaged the enemy’s cavalry at melee. The battle had kicked off just like that.

Neither side was holding anything back. One enemy fired a devastating five-hit Crimson Flame Slash that annihilated a dozen or so Dragonlight Cavalrymen, but we retaliated right back with Xiezhi Howl, Ice Flame Slash, Burning Blade Slash, Reverse Scale Slash, Rock Crush, Rock Smash and more. In terms of fighter AoE skills, the English were far, far behind us!

Entire groups of enemy players dropped dead at the same time. Not only that, the 5000 Dragonlight Archers behind us Far Shot their skills and gave us cover fire, causing the English cavalrymen to die even faster.

Crack!

After I split an entire magic knight and his mount in half, I spurred my Ancient Divine Dragon forward before shouting, "Cold of the Nine Provinces!"

All the English cavalrymen around me turned into popsicles before my players tore them to shreds. The city gate was only 50 yards away from us now. After cutting down dozens of road blockers with another Burning Blade Slash, I activated Fusion Armor and Heavenly River Transformation at the same time; the power of domain protecting me with all but the strongest of arrow shots. The average player couldn’t even begin to imagine how tough a Heavenly River Realm peak expert was, not to mention that I had Battle Astral Wind even if they managed to pierce my Domain. The English’s SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skill owner, Soul Slayer, had already been slain in Hot Sand Forest. What else could they possibly do against us?

"Ready? Go! Break the city gate with your Ancient Divine Skills now!"

I rushed forward and raised the Chill of the Nine Provinces, causing a gigantic golden blade to manifest in the air. Then, I brought it down and struck the gate with everything I got. To my surprise, I dealt an incredible amount of damage, but it only amounted to 29% of durability or so. This goddamn gate is pretty tough!

Behind me, High Fighting Spirits, Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust unleashed their Xing Tian’s Defiance, Tiger Wing Slash and Dog God Slash as well. This time, the gate lost around 30% durability in total.

"Our turn!"

Sword shadows glowing beneath Lin Yixin and He Yi’s feet, the two girls rushed forward and executed their combos—Ice Flame Slash, Ultimate Strength Break, Purgatory of Ice and Magma and more—as quickly as they could. The great thing about their SS Rank Divine General Skills was that they made all their attacks armor-penetrating, invincibility-ignoring, unparriable and unblockable!

……

In the end, the heavy gate couldn’t withstand the amount of punishment it was receiving and fell backward. Gui Guzi took the opportunity to cast Shennong Tastes Grass and restored all Chinese players within 1000 yards of him to almost full HP. The skill was just too good.