The battle had reached a deadlock. The golden gate of Gold City was dyed in players’ blood, but Purgatory Mad Dragon couldn’t progress an inch further than that. It was as if there was a wall barring them from entering within ten meters of the hunk of steel. On the wall, Little Piglet killed a lot of Warsky Alliance players, but Warsky and Farewell Song killed more in total. After a couple of exchanges, Little Piglet fully realized Warsky’s strength with the Immortal Blade in hand and was forced to beat a temporary retreat.

The deadlock continued for almost 2 hours. It almost felt like it would never end.

……

"Yawn…"

Sitting on a blue-colored rock and leaning against a red maple tree, I let out a comfortable yawn, closed my eyes and said, "Dammit, why is this siege so boring to watch…"

Li Chengfeng echoed in agreement, "I know right? Purgatory Mad Dragon’s offensive power is so terrible they can’t land a solid blow on Warsky Alliance despite their number advantage. This siege is probably going to last a long time, and Warsky Alliance is in no hurry whatsoever. They know they’ll be the final victor if Purgatory Mad Dragon’s effective strength is all but depleted."

A blinking Chaos Moon suddenly interrupted, "A few minutes ago, a Warsky Alliance player paid a ton of gold and purchased 9 bottles of equipment repair potions in total at the entrance of Sky City. You guys wanna guess what they’re used for?"

I answered, "Is that even a question? It’s to repair Warsky’s equipment, duh. As long as Warsky remains alive and active, the city is as good as theirs."

Chaos Moon chuckled. "It’s fine, there’s still 10 hours left on the clock. That’s plenty of time to foil their plans. Hey look! Lian Xin and Sister Mingyue are finally here!"

A large troop of players appeared from the horizon, and they were all wearing the emblem of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. Lian Xin was walking side-by-side with Murong Mingyue, and Beiming Xue was guarding them with the Xuanming Bow in her hands. The main force had finally arrived!

After they climbed up the hill we were resting at, I patted the rock beside me and asked, "It was a long journey. Come take a seat and rest for a bit?"

Murong Mingyue shook her head smilingly, but Beiming Xue and Lian Xin took my offer and sat down beside me. Beiming Xue asked, "How did the fight go while I was offline, big bro?"

"Not very well, to be honest…"

I grinned. "We defeated Candle Dragon’s main force and defeated Amber Pupil’s Dark Mercenaries, but we lost almost all of the Dragonlight Cavalry we brought as a result…"

"Are you training to become a prodigal son or something?" Murong Mingyue chided me playfully. "A 10% casualty rate or higher is already considered unbelievable for a troop of Dragonlight Cavalry that is over ten thousand strong. How dare you shatter that record and lose nearly every Dragonlight Cavalryman and Dragonlight Archer you brought?"

I shrugged. "Sorry, but I just can’t stand shameless traitors like Amber Pupil. I cannot let him go even if it costs us most of our forces."

Murong Mingyue turned serious. "About that, the news of Amber Pupil creating the Dark Mercenaries in the outer lands and receiving support from the Northern Alliance is burning like wildfire on the forums right now. Countless people are cursing him and predicting that they will cause more trouble in the future. My point is that your choice to annihilate them even at the cost of most of the Dragonlight Cavalry was the right one. Many people on the forums are praising our guild and thinking that we are much more righteous than Warsky Alliance in this regard. Only a guild that can set aside their personal benefit for the bigger justice is deserving to become the number one guild of China."

I exhaled. "We’re not the number one guild yet, but this moment can’t be too far away. There’s no way Candle Dragon can retain their throne after the massive defeat we just dealt to them. Speaking of which, can you urge Uncle Zhang Chun to rush out the new China Guild Ranking already? I want to see our name at the top right now!"

Murong Mingyue chuckled. "Do you know what Candle Dragon is doing right now?"

"No?" I shook my head.

Lu Buyi chose this moment to speak up. He looked like a dao immortal standing under a pine tree while waving his Iron Bone Fan. "I can answer that if you want."

"Sure! What are they doing right now, Buyi?" I asked.

Buyi began, "Some of my friends were grinding at Dawn City when they spotted Candle Dragon’s remnant forces an hour ago. Candlelight Shadow is obviously gunning for Dark Steel City. Something is better than nothing after all."

Li Chengfeng hummed. "Candlelight Shadow already died once though. He wouldn’t be able to get close to Dark Steel City. I guess he’s entrusting the job to his remaining players?"

Lu Buyi nodded. "That is correct. The contest for Dark Steel City is still going hot, by the way. Candle Dragon’s appearance is only going to make it worse."

I shrugged. "Candle Dragon may have lost most of their executive-level players, but that doesn’t mean they are even close to being defanged. Anyway, all we can do is to pray that the current defenders of Dark Steel City aren’t too shit. We have to focus all our strength on Gold City right now. Even if we won’t be taking it for ourselves, our allies will surely enjoy the gift."

Gui Guzi’s eyes suddenly lit up. "I have an idea, Boss Broken Halberd. Why don’t we take Gold City for Bloody Mercenaries? This way, Bloody Mercenaries can produce the Gold Cavalry, and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls can produce players with Heart of the Holy Mages! That will be perfect, won’t it?"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun agreed. "That’s a good idea! Bloody Mercenaries may be our subguild, but it is technically an independent guild in the game. It absolutely has the qualifications to occupy Gold City."

I fell silent and thought for a moment.

"What do you think, Lu Chen?" Murong Mingyue asked.

I finally looked up at everyone and said, "To be honest, I was tempted to take Gold City for Bloody Mercenaries. However, the Cities of Heaven were supposed to be shared with the entire server. What will the other guilds think if we take both Gold City and Silver City, the two best Cities of Heaven for ourselves? I think we should be satisfied with what we have. Gold City should go to a guild that actually needs it. If that guild becomes stronger than Bloody Mercenaries as a result, that is a good thing because it means that the China server is stronger as a whole. There is only so much resources to go around after all. We can be the strongest guild in the China server, but we shan’t be the most selfish…"

Li Chengfeng nodded before letting out a short laugh.

"What are you laughing about, Li?" Gui Guzi asked.

Li Chengfeng laughed again before explaining, "I laugh because Lu Chen possesses the strength to become a king, but not the qualities. To be more specific, Lu Chen is not like Candlelight Shadow, Warsky or Wang Dongliang. He’s a benevolent man who would rather surrender a massive advantage like Gold City for the greater good. However, that is exactly why we all gathered around you. There is no such thing as a superior-subordinate relationship in your world, only brotherhood!"

I shrugged again before replying, "You’re right. I was never interested in becoming the king of whatever. All I ever wanted is to grind equipment and lead a proud life with everyone!"

Gui Guzi laughed as well. "Haha! Well said, Boss Broken Halberd! Our goal isn’t to become king, but to become the ones who step on those people who call themselves kings!"

Me: "..."

……

It was at this moment something new occurred at Gold City. A troop of players had broken through Purgatory Mad Dragon’s lockdown and reached all the way to the city walls. The leader of the group was none other than the guild leader of Gods of Destruction, Dominating Heaven Blade himself. He shouted, "Open the gate, Warsky! We’ve come to help you!"

Warsky looked confused. "I… don’t think I sent you a request for reinforcements, did I?"

Dominating Heaven Blade gritted his teeth. "Are you fucking serious? That’s what you’re asking after we lost nearly ten thousand men to come to your aid? Anyway, the bastards from Purgatory Mad Dragon had flattened our grinding base as soon as they formed their new guild. There is no one I want to screw over more than them, so open the gates and let us help you with the defense already!"

Warsky accepted the explanation and ordered, "Very well. Someone, open the gate and let our friends in! Ranged players, don’t forget to provide cover fire for them! Hmph hmph, now that we have Gods of Destruction guild’s help, our chances of holding Gold City are infinitely close to 100%!"

Creak… creak...

The golden gate groaned open, and Dominating Heaven Blade and his cohorts didn’t hesitate to rush in. Soon, nearly 100000 Gods of Destruction players had entered Gold City.

……

"Hmm?" Li Chengfeng made a confused noise.

"What’s wrong, Li?" High Fighting Spirits clapped a hand on his shoulder.

Li Chengfeng replied with a frown, "Something doesn’t feel right about this. Gods of Destruction isn’t weak, but could they really have cut through Purgatory Mad Dragon’s forces all the way to the gates and lose less than 10000 men in the process? Also, why didn’t they take out the White Marsh Catapults if they really were trying to reinforce Warsky Alliance? They were right next to them just now."

Gui Guzi shuddered. "Could it be... Did Gods of Destruction become Purgatory Mad Dragon’s spy?"

"I don’t know…"

……

I abruptly rose to my feet, summoned the Ancient Divine Dragon and climbed onto its back.

"Lu Chen?" Murong Mingyue looked at me.

I declared, "Tell everyone to get ready. As Chengfeng says, something about this is completely unnatural. Dominating Heaven Blade has been screwed over plenty of times by Warsky as well, not to mention that Warsky Alliance’s the one who has the upper hand right now. Why on earth would Gods of Destruction do something so pointless? The answer is that they wouldn’t. There is a much higher chance that they’ve come to an agreement with Purgatory Mad Dragon!"

"Dominating Heaven Blade is selling out to Purgatory Mad Dragon? Seriously?" Lian Xin exclaimed in disbelief.

I nodded. "It’s most likely the case…"

Chaos Moon’s fell open. "Now that you mentioned it, Intelligence Agency sent me some intel that mentioned that Gods of Destruction has been running low on capital recently. Dominating Heaven Blade was even forced to sell off one of his estates to pay his players’ salaries. Lu Chen’s guess isn’t far-fetched at all. We’ve all seen how generous Wang Dongliang is being. It’s entirely possible that he’s offered Dominating Heaven Blade an irresistible sum of money for his service!"

……

As if on cue, a battle cry suddenly erupted from within Gold City. It was Dominating Heaven Blade killing two Warsky Alliance mages before shouting, "Kill! I’ve declared war on Warsky Alliance! Warsky thinks he can steal our grinding maps and shame our brothers? Now is the time to take revenge against him! Kill them all!"

The power of 100000 players couldn’t be underestimated. Warsky Alliance took a huge blow immediately.

The eastern gate opened once more, but this time it wasn’t manned by Warsky Alliance’s players.

……

Wang Dongliang smiled and raised his sword. "The strategy is a success, brothers and sisters! Go go go! Take out Warsky and steal the City Lord Token!"