1565

"Yeah. Come back as soon as you can. At this rate, we’re probably going to lose both Skyridge Fortress and Swallow Ear Canton!" Li Chengfeng said urgently.

I climbed to my feet while responding, "Got it. Hold the line for the moment, will you? I’ll be there right away!"

"Yeah!"

……

I hurriedly put on my clothes after hanging up. Then, I felt a pair of small, delicate hands wrapping around my elbow. Xinran had woken up from her sleep and was staring at me with her gem-dark eyes, asking, "The sun hasn’t even risen yet, big brother. Are you leaving already?"

I nodded and caressed her cheek gently. "The situation’s gone critical in the game, so I need to log in right now. Don’t wait for me. I doubt I’ll be able to log out until tonight at least. We’ll see each other then, okay?"

Xinran made a cute "mn" sound before struggling to a sitting position. Hugging me with both arms and squeezing her ample pair of rabbits against my body, she said, "Okay. Do your best, big brother!"

"I will."

My heart raced at the physical contact as I gently put her to bed once more. Then, I stepped outside and knocked on every girl’s door except Lin Yixin’s. It was because I didn’t know if she had logged out of the game. If she had, she must be in deep sleep by now. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t be able to respond to me anyway. Either way, I decided not to disturb her.

The girls hurriedly ate a plain water + bread combo to replenish their energy. Then, they logged back into the game!

Swhoosh!

I appeared in a distant forest beyond Swallow Ear Canton. All around me, the Dragonlight Cavalrymen were logging in as well. Li Chengfeng immediately tagged me in the guild channel the moment I appeared, "You’re finally here, Lu Chen! Uncle Zhang Chun said to leave Swallow Ear Canton to Snowy Cathaya, Candle Dragon and Warsky Alliance, so take everyone with you and come to Sky Ridge Fortress now!"

I wasn’t sure. "Farewell Song, Purple Marquis and Ling Xueshang are dead. Can they really handle Swallow Ear Canton as they are?"

Li Chengfeng replied, "One way or another, they must. Right now though, we must focus on defending Sky Ridge Fortress. Otherwise, the enemy will have a direct path to our main cities!"

"Got it!"

I crawled out of my tent, summoned the Ancient Divine Dragon, and activated Fusion Armor. I checked my equipment next and noted that they were all sitting around 30% durability. I immediately said in the guild channel, "All units, return to Sky City to repair your equipment. Rush to Sky Ridge Fortress immediately after you’re ready!"

I took a moment to check out Swallow Ear Canton. The city was moments away from collapsing completely, but it was impossible to say how long this moment would be considering that it had already survived far longer than it should. In the sky, giant dragons and divine experts were flying and pouring dazzling sword skills at the defenders. There were even more players fighting against each other on the ground. Candle Dragon, Warsky Alliance, Snowy Cathaya, Purple Lily and more Chinese super guilds were currently doing fierce battle against Cyan Earth City, Elephant City and Burning City’s forces.

"Do your best, Yiyi…" I said under my breath. I didn’t message her because I didn’t want to distract her. I could see her standing on a wall and killing a bunch of players using Thundercloud Storm. The Wind Severing Sword flashed for an instant, and the system announced the death of a JGL Hall of Famer and propelled her to second place on the contribution point ranking. Heaven only knows how many powerful enemies she had killed during the four hours we had been resting.

……

I took out a return scroll and crushed it to teleport back to Sky City. A lot of casual guilds—and I do mean a lot, even the floating rocks were jam-packed with people—had stationed themselves in the city because they knew that there was a chance that Sky Ridge Fortress and Fortress of the Iron Halberd might fall to the enemy’s assault. If that happened, the enemy was sure to attack Sky City.

I quickly repaired my equipment, bought all the potions and Magic Consumables I needed, and flew straight toward Sky Ridge Fortress with He Yi, Lian Xin, Beiming Xue and Murong Mingyue right beside me. Gui Guzi and Chaos Moon were a tad slower.

My figure cut through the sky like a black meteor.

Less than four minutes later, an impressive-looking fortress appeared on a snowy peak of Dragonbone Mountain Range. Right now, it looked to be embroiled in flames because it was under heavy assault from the opposite direction!

Swhoosh!

I flew over the fortress and took in everything. Blood ran like a river on the other side of the fortress. Countless Northern Alliance and Cyan Earth City players were flooding up the mountain and placing super long cloud ladders against the fortress’ walls. Worse, a thick row of siege towers slowly approaching the walls. The moment they made contact, hundreds of Northern Alliance players immediately flooded onto the walls!

On the rampart, Hegemon Palace’s Wang Dongliang was cutting down an enemy while shouting, "What the fuck are you doing, archers? Shoot the enemies off the walls already! Mages, use God Devil Break! It’s the most powerful spell you have. Also, where are the White Marsh Catapults? Shoot those siege towers and destroy them already!"

Before he could finish his sentence, a dragon knight swooped down from the sky and struck Wang Dongliang and the group of Hegemon Palace players behind him. It was the Knight of Stars, Beethoven’s Joy. It looked like he had switched out his previous mount to a fire dragon.

Boom!

1,928,734!

Wang Dongliang turned purple as he backed further away from Beethoven’s Joy. "Goddamned dragon knight! Drop him from the sky with Trapping Nets!"

A whole group of Hegemon Palace magic knights threw their Trapping Nets at Beethoven’s Joy, but the man sneered disdainfully and said, "You trash think you can bind me with your Trapping Nets? Dream on!"

He swung his sword again using Star Slash. It dealt an insane amount of damage and one-shot a lot of archers and priests. Behind him, a great number of Hero Alliance players were flooding onto the walls and rushing toward the Chinese defenders. Beethoven’s Joy’s plan was very simple. If he could delay Wang Dongliang and his main force long enough for Hero Alliance’s forces to fully invade the walls, Sky Ridge Fortress was as good as theirs!

Swhoosh!

With the wind and snow blowing behind me, I descended onto the walls and activated Heavenly River Transformation. I had already buffed myself with Martial God and a card beforehand, so I wasted no time in attacking Beethoven’s Joy!

"Who’s that?!!"

Beethoven’s Joy’s pupils shrank when he looked up and saw me. "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand! Shit!!!"

My movement speed was insane, and my turn rate penalty was practically zero, not that it mattered for a beeline. I was able to land on his fire dragon’s head and stab him with Universe Break before he could react!

2,726,567!

Beethoven blanked out for an instant. It had been a while since we had crossed blades, so he didn’t realize how powerful my Attack had become. He hurriedly executed a four-hit Armor Break Flurry!

I easily interrupted his skill with Magic Piercing Punch. While doing so, I glanced at Hegemon Palace’s archers and shouted, "Focus him now!"

Beethoven’s Joy reflexively activated his Scorching Shield of Stars, a skill that absorbed any damage taken three times in total. Unfortunately for him, I simply waited until a shower of shitty arrows wasted all three charges of his invincible shield. The moment his Scorching Shield of Stars vanished, I smiled and wreathed myself in flames. Then, I knocked both him and his dragon off the walls before wrapping his neck with Chains of Freedom. Finally, I pressed the Xuanyuan Sword against his chest and executed Xuanyuan Slash + Burning Blade Slash combo! I was betting on the Xuanyuan Sword triggering its septuple damage effect at least once in this combo and one-shotting Beethoven’s Joy![1]

"Ah?!"

Beethoven’s face warped the moment he saw the chains. He was a divine player, so he absolutely couldn’t afford to die while the Chains of Freedom skill was in effect!

Unfortunately, it was too late. The damage numbers that appeared were—

3,791,727!

1,928,894!

2,358,779!

21,881,118!

……

I smirked. As expected of the Xuanyuan Sword, it had triggered its septuple damage effect on the last hit!

Ding!

System Announcement: Attention all players, player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand" (China) killed the Heroic Bannerman "Beethoven’s Joy" (USA) and obtained 10% of their contribution points, 218,789 points!

……

The Hegemon Palace and Mad Dragon players on the walls immediately erupted, "Holy fuck! He killed the vice leader of Hero Alliance in one combo! Good shit, Lu Chen!"

There was no time to bask in their praise, however. After grabbing the sword and shield Beethoven’s Joy had dropped, I purposely crashed on top of a siege tower and swung the Xuanyuan Sword repeatedly. A series of strikes later, the siege tower collapsed and subjected its passengers to a drop from several hundred meters high.

I turned my blade and activated Xuanyuan Art. All the enemies scaling the fortress immediately lost 70% of their HP or died immediately, causing my contribution points to skyrocket.

The snow outside the fortress was completely drenched in blood. One man in an approaching group of Hero Alliance archers pointed at me and said, "That’s the champion of the first WEL! Kill him and take revenge for Beethoven!"

I activated Battle Astral Wind to render the rain of arrows flying toward me useless. At the same time, I executed Ancient Seal + Summon the Storm combo that massacred a bunch of archers. Unfortunately, one Shock Arrow was able to stun me for 1.4 seconds around this time. The enemy did have plenty of Level 255 archers, and despite my level, I couldn’t say that I was immune to CCs.

A beautiful figure stepped out into the open and ordered, "Spear riders, throw!"

On the ground, a troop of cavalrymen wearing deep blue armor immediately raised their shields and threw their spears at me. At the same time, the beautiful woman who gave the order struck me with an Ice Blade Slash + Ice Flame Slash combo that sent me flying to the back!

1,527,766!

1,782,737!

Since Ice Blade Slash had encased me in ice, I wasn’t able to stop my descent until I crashed against the ground.

Pa…

A pair of warm hands supported me back to my feet, and He Yi said beside my ears, "It’s Tear Stain…"

Gui Guzi and Li Chengfeng struck out at Tear Stain and forced her to slip behind the lines once more. She had no intention of fighting against our apex predators head-on anyway. While standing in the middle of a crowd, she waved her hand and ordered, "Siege towers, keep advancing! Ground troops, hit the walls with warhammers and bring them down!"

"That devious woman…" Gui Guzi clenched his fists.

Li Chengfeng shot me a concerned look. "Are you okay, Lu Chen?"

I climbed up to my feet and patted away the ice still clinging to my body. "I’m fine. By the way, how did Purple Marquis and Farewell Song die? Who killed them[2]?"

"Flowing Cloud!"

Li Chengfeng answered solemnly, "Purple Marquis got last-hit after Lui Lok had dropped him to low health. Farewell Song left an opening when he was ambushing a couple of Temple Guards and got taken out in one combo!"

I uttered through gritted teeth, "Just how strong has Flowing Cloud become?"

As if on cue, the system dinged an announcement—

Ding!

System Announcement: Attention all players, player "Flowing Cloud" (India) killed the CGL Hall of Famer "Warsky" (China) and obtained 10% of their contribution points, 231,279 points[3]

1. T/N: I’m pretty sure it’s enough to one-shot him regardless ☜

2. T/N: I received a midnight call once where my brain couldn’t comprehend a single word. So I’m going to give Lu Chen the benefit of the doubt and say that he didn’t catch LCF saying earlier that Flowing Cloud killed them ☜

3. T/N: that no one rage-quit is the single most unbelievable thing in this novel ☜

"Yeah. Come back as soon as you can. At this rate, we’re probably going to lose both Skyridge Fortress and Swallow Ear Canton!" Li Chengfeng said urgently.

I climbed to my feet while responding, "Got it. Hold the line for the moment, will you? I’ll be there right away!"

"Yeah!"

……

I hurriedly put on my clothes after hanging up. Then, I felt a pair of small, delicate hands wrapping around my elbow. Xinran had woken up from her sleep and was staring at me with her gem-dark eyes, asking, "The sun hasn’t even risen yet, big brother. Are you leaving already?"

I nodded and caressed her cheek gently. "The situation’s gone critical in the game, so I need to log in right now. Don’t wait for me. I doubt I’ll be able to log out until tonight at least. We’ll see each other then, okay?"

Xinran made a cute "mn" sound before struggling to a sitting position. Hugging me with both arms and squeezing her ample pair of rabbits against my body, she said, "Okay. Do your best, big brother!"

"I will."

My heart raced at the physical contact as I gently put her to bed once more. Then, I stepped outside and knocked on every girl’s door except Lin Yixin’s. It was because I didn’t know if she had logged out of the game. If she had, she must be in deep sleep by now. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t be able to respond to me anyway. Either way, I decided not to disturb her.

The girls hurriedly ate a plain water + bread combo to replenish their energy. Then, they logged back into the game!

Swhoosh!

I appeared in a distant forest beyond Swallow Ear Canton. All around me, the Dragonlight Cavalrymen were logging in as well. Li Chengfeng immediately tagged me in the guild channel the moment I appeared, "You’re finally here, Lu Chen! Uncle Zhang Chun said to leave Swallow Ear Canton to Snowy Cathaya, Candle Dragon and Warsky Alliance, so take everyone with you and come to Sky Ridge Fortress now!"

I wasn’t sure. "Farewell Song, Purple Marquis and Ling Xueshang are dead. Can they really handle Swallow Ear Canton as they are?"

Li Chengfeng replied, "One way or another, they must. Right now though, we must focus on defending Sky Ridge Fortress. Otherwise, the enemy will have a direct path to our main cities!"

"Got it!"

I crawled out of my tent, summoned the Ancient Divine Dragon, and activated Fusion Armor. I checked my equipment next and noted that they were all sitting around 30% durability. I immediately said in the guild channel, "All units, return to Sky City to repair your equipment. Rush to Sky Ridge Fortress immediately after you’re ready!"

I took a moment to check out Swallow Ear Canton. The city was moments away from collapsing completely, but it was impossible to say how long this moment would be considering that it had already survived far longer than it should. In the sky, giant dragons and divine experts were flying and pouring dazzling sword skills at the defenders. There were even more players fighting against each other on the ground. Candle Dragon, Warsky Alliance, Snowy Cathaya, Purple Lily and more Chinese super guilds were currently doing fierce battle against Cyan Earth City, Elephant City and Burning City’s forces.

"Do your best, Yiyi…" I said under my breath. I didn’t message her because I didn’t want to distract her. I could see her standing on a wall and killing a bunch of players using Thundercloud Storm. The Wind Severing Sword flashed for an instant, and the system announced the death of a JGL Hall of Famer and propelled her to second place on the contribution point ranking. Heaven only knows how many powerful enemies she had killed during the four hours we had been resting.

……

I took out a return scroll and crushed it to teleport back to Sky City. A lot of casual guilds—and I do mean a lot, even the floating rocks were jam-packed with people—had stationed themselves in the city because they knew that there was a chance that Sky Ridge Fortress and Fortress of the Iron Halberd might fall to the enemy’s assault. If that happened, the enemy was sure to attack Sky City.

I quickly repaired my equipment, bought all the potions and Magic Consumables I needed, and flew straight toward Sky Ridge Fortress with He Yi, Lian Xin, Beiming Xue and Murong Mingyue right beside me. Gui Guzi and Chaos Moon were a tad slower.

My figure cut through the sky like a black meteor.

Less than four minutes later, an impressive-looking fortress appeared on a snowy peak of Dragonbone Mountain Range. Right now, it looked to be embroiled in flames because it was under heavy assault from the opposite direction!

Swhoosh!

I flew over the fortress and took in everything. Blood ran like a river on the other side of the fortress. Countless Northern Alliance and Cyan Earth City players were flooding up the mountain and placing super long cloud ladders against the fortress’ walls. Worse, a thick row of siege towers slowly approaching the walls. The moment they made contact, hundreds of Northern Alliance players immediately flooded onto the walls!

On the rampart, Hegemon Palace’s Wang Dongliang was cutting down an enemy while shouting, "What the fuck are you doing, archers? Shoot the enemies off the walls already! Mages, use God Devil Break! It’s the most powerful spell you have. Also, where are the White Marsh Catapults? Shoot those siege towers and destroy them already!"

Before he could finish his sentence, a dragon knight swooped down from the sky and struck Wang Dongliang and the group of Hegemon Palace players behind him. It was the Knight of Stars, Beethoven’s Joy. It looked like he had switched out his previous mount to a fire dragon.

Boom!

1,928,734!

Wang Dongliang turned purple as he backed further away from Beethoven’s Joy. "Goddamned dragon knight! Drop him from the sky with Trapping Nets!"

A whole group of Hegemon Palace magic knights threw their Trapping Nets at Beethoven’s Joy, but the man sneered disdainfully and said, "You trash think you can bind me with your Trapping Nets? Dream on!"

He swung his sword again using Star Slash. It dealt an insane amount of damage and one-shot a lot of archers and priests. Behind him, a great number of Hero Alliance players were flooding onto the walls and rushing toward the Chinese defenders. Beethoven’s Joy’s plan was very simple. If he could delay Wang Dongliang and his main force long enough for Hero Alliance’s forces to fully invade the walls, Sky Ridge Fortress was as good as theirs!

Swhoosh!

With the wind and snow blowing behind me, I descended onto the walls and activated Heavenly River Transformation. I had already buffed myself with Martial God and a card beforehand, so I wasted no time in attacking Beethoven’s Joy!

"Who’s that?!!"

Beethoven’s Joy’s pupils shrank when he looked up and saw me. "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand! Shit!!!"

My movement speed was insane, and my turn rate penalty was practically zero, not that it mattered for a beeline. I was able to land on his fire dragon’s head and stab him with Universe Break before he could react!

2,726,567!

Beethoven blanked out for an instant. It had been a while since we had crossed blades, so he didn’t realize how powerful my Attack had become. He hurriedly executed a four-hit Armor Break Flurry!

I easily interrupted his skill with Magic Piercing Punch. While doing so, I glanced at Hegemon Palace’s archers and shouted, "Focus him now!"

Beethoven’s Joy reflexively activated his Scorching Shield of Stars, a skill that absorbed any damage taken three times in total. Unfortunately for him, I simply waited until a shower of shitty arrows wasted all three charges of his invincible shield. The moment his Scorching Shield of Stars vanished, I smiled and wreathed myself in flames. Then, I knocked both him and his dragon off the walls before wrapping his neck with Chains of Freedom. Finally, I pressed the Xuanyuan Sword against his chest and executed Xuanyuan Slash + Burning Blade Slash combo! I was betting on the Xuanyuan Sword triggering its septuple damage effect at least once in this combo and one-shotting Beethoven’s Joy![1]

"Ah?!"

Beethoven’s face warped the moment he saw the chains. He was a divine player, so he absolutely couldn’t afford to die while the Chains of Freedom skill was in effect!

Unfortunately, it was too late. The damage numbers that appeared were—

3,791,727!

1,928,894!

2,358,779!

21,881,118!

……

I smirked. As expected of the Xuanyuan Sword, it had triggered its septuple damage effect on the last hit!

Ding!

System Announcement: Attention all players, player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand" (China) killed the Heroic Bannerman "Beethoven’s Joy" (USA) and obtained 10% of their contribution points, 218,789 points!

……

The Hegemon Palace and Mad Dragon players on the walls immediately erupted, "Holy fuck! He killed the vice leader of Hero Alliance in one combo! Good shit, Lu Chen!"

There was no time to bask in their praise, however. After grabbing the sword and shield Beethoven’s Joy had dropped, I purposely crashed on top of a siege tower and swung the Xuanyuan Sword repeatedly. A series of strikes later, the siege tower collapsed and subjected its passengers to a drop from several hundred meters high.

I turned my blade and activated Xuanyuan Art. All the enemies scaling the fortress immediately lost 70% of their HP or died immediately, causing my contribution points to skyrocket.

The snow outside the fortress was completely drenched in blood. One man in an approaching group of Hero Alliance archers pointed at me and said, "That’s the champion of the first WEL! Kill him and take revenge for Beethoven!"

I activated Battle Astral Wind to render the rain of arrows flying toward me useless. At the same time, I executed Ancient Seal + Summon the Storm combo that massacred a bunch of archers. Unfortunately, one Shock Arrow was able to stun me for 1.4 seconds around this time. The enemy did have plenty of Level 255 archers, and despite my level, I couldn’t say that I was immune to CCs.

A beautiful figure stepped out into the open and ordered, "Spear riders, throw!"

On the ground, a troop of cavalrymen wearing deep blue armor immediately raised their shields and threw their spears at me. At the same time, the beautiful woman who gave the order struck me with an Ice Blade Slash + Ice Flame Slash combo that sent me flying to the back!

1,527,766!

1,782,737!

Since Ice Blade Slash had encased me in ice, I wasn’t able to stop my descent until I crashed against the ground.

Pa…

A pair of warm hands supported me back to my feet, and He Yi said beside my ears, "It’s Tear Stain…"

Gui Guzi and Li Chengfeng struck out at Tear Stain and forced her to slip behind the lines once more. She had no intention of fighting against our apex predators head-on anyway. While standing in the middle of a crowd, she waved her hand and ordered, "Siege towers, keep advancing! Ground troops, hit the walls with warhammers and bring them down!"

"That devious woman…" Gui Guzi clenched his fists.

Li Chengfeng shot me a concerned look. "Are you okay, Lu Chen?"

I climbed up to my feet and patted away the ice still clinging to my body. "I’m fine. By the way, how did Purple Marquis and Farewell Song die? Who killed them[2]?"

"Flowing Cloud!"

Li Chengfeng answered solemnly, "Purple Marquis got last-hit after Lui Lok had dropped him to low health. Farewell Song left an opening when he was ambushing a couple of Temple Guards and got taken out in one combo!"

I uttered through gritted teeth, "Just how strong has Flowing Cloud become?"

As if on cue, the system dinged an announcement—

Ding!

System Announcement: Attention all players, player "Flowing Cloud" (India) killed the CGL Hall of Famer "Warsky" (China) and obtained 10% of their contribution points, 231,279 points[3]

1. T/N: I’m pretty sure it’s enough to one-shot him regardless ☜

2. T/N: I received a midnight call once where my brain couldn’t comprehend a single word. So I’m going to give Lu Chen the benefit of the doubt and say that he didn’t catch LCF saying earlier that Flowing Cloud killed them ☜

3. T/N: that no one rage-quit is the single most unbelievable thing in this novel ☜