Our players moved past the Impa.s.sable Great Wall, stepped on the corpses of our enemies and slaughtered the remaining survivors. It wasn"t really a fight since many of them had given up and just stood there waiting for us to kill them.
……
Suddenly, Li Chengfeng yelled over the thundering hooves all around us, "Lu Chen, something feels off. There were a couple hundred Black Marsh Catapults inside the Impa.s.sable Great Wall just a moment ago, right? Did you see them now? Siege weapons can"t use a return scroll, so where are they?"
I looked left and right for the Black Marsh Catapults myself, but the situation inside the canyon was absolute chaos. It was already confusing enough when it was just us cavalry, and now that the mages, archers, a.s.sa.s.sins and more had joined the battle as well, I could barely make sense of what was going on around us.
Suddenly, Chaos Moon pointed to the far side of the canyon and said, "Lu Chen look! The Black Marsh Catapults are there! Why is the enemy pus.h.i.+ng them toward the cliffside?"
I shook my head. "I don"t know…"
Xu Yang said, "It doesn"t matter. I"ll take some men with me and destroy them all. Is that okay?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Take a couple thousand Dragonlight Cavalry with you. The sooner you take them out, the better!"
"Heh, got it!"
……
After the Dragonlight Cavalry left, I went back to killing the enemies to earn contribution points and reading the maps. The detailed map Chaos Moon had given me earlier had proven to be amazingly useful so far.
Suddenly, I felt a s.h.i.+ver in my heart. Wait a second, the map"s different now after a downpour, right...? What did I miss?
Could it be?
I refreshed the map and felt my eyes goggle in shock. On the world map, the green valley in between the mountain ranges next to the Impa.s.sable Great Wall had turned blue in color! It was a lake! A rainwater lake between Frost Flame Mountain Range and Sunset Mountain Range! The mountaintop lake was dry at the beginning, but the super downpour last night had filled it up with water once more! Looking at its size and depth, one might even call it a sea set atop the mountains!
I looked at the map again and noted that Frost Flame Mountain Range and Sunset Mountain Range almost surrounded the Impa.s.sable Great Wall completely. At that moment, I understood everything!
My heart rate suddenly spiked to max, and I felt like my throat was on fire. I suddenly grabbed He Yi"s arm.
"Lu Chen? What"s wrong? You look really pale."
I said in a s.h.i.+vering voice, "Eve, tell everyone to teleport back to Sky City now!"
"But why?" He Yi asked in confusion.
"Don"t ask, do it now!!" I nearly shouted out those words.
He Yi jumped. She had never seen me this agitated before. She immediately said in the guild channel, "All main guilds and subguilds are to exit combat state, use a return scroll and teleport back to Sky City as soon as possible! No time to explain, just teleport away now!"
My guild wasn"t the only guild that would be affected by this, so I spent 5000 RMB to make a system announcement—
Ding~!
System Announcement (Player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand" Shout): All Chinese players battling in the Impa.s.sable Great Wall map, escape combat state and teleport back to Sky City now! There"s no time, just trust me and do it now!
……
All around me, players began executing the order unquestioningly. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls" players were absolutely loyal to He Yi, so they would carry out any order she gave. Even Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon and the more hotheaded players in our guild rode away from the battlefield to exit combat state before crus.h.i.+ng their return scrolls. Xu Yang also stopped charging the Black Marsh Catapults and led the Dragonlight Cavalry to a safe place to teleport.
"What"s wrong, Lu Chen?" Lin Yixin asked while riding up to me. Her face was full of confusion.
I pointed at the mountain ranges to our flanks and said, "Red Maple is going to punch through the cliffside and flood the Impa.s.sable Great Wall! We need to teleport now, or it"ll be too late!"
"Mn!"
Lin Yixin was an intelligent woman. She understood everything despite the rough explanation.
……
Unfortunately, the remaining millions or so j.a.panese players noticed what we were doing and immediately launched a fierce counterattack. They were able to slow our retreat greatly and keep almost a million players on the battlefield.
Clang clang...
A very short time later, I heard the mechanical noise of the Black Marsh Catapults firing their payloads. I knew I was right the moment I saw the rocks flying toward the mountain ranges.
Boom boom boom...
The natural walls of the mountain ranges were thick as a matter of course, but the Black Marsh Catapults were exceptionally good at what they did. The entire cliffside crumbled in no time, and water flooded toward us at incredible speed!
"We need to retreat now, Yiyi!" I shouted.
Lin Yixin nodded and ordered, "Purple Marquis, take the Kui Dragon Cavalry with you to the frontline and buy time for our comrades to retreat!"
"Mn!"
Purple Marquis and the Kui Dragon Cavalry took off immediately.
I couldn"t help but ask, "Yiyi, why didn"t you tell your cavalry to escape? You can"t possibly mean for them to die here, can you?"
She giggled. "Don"t worry, the Kui Dragon is an amphibious mount. They are the perfect unit for this job!"
"Haha, now that you mention it, I completely forgot about that! Alright, let"s go!"
"Mn!"
Lin Yixin and I crushed our return scrolls at the same time and teleported away. Our weapon and armor needed repairing anyway, so this was just as well.
……
Swhoos.h.!.+
When we returned to Sky City, we saw that the repair merchant was about to suffocate to death from the sheer amount of players surrounding him. Obviously, the city didn"t normally see this much volume within its walls.
After pus.h.i.+ng my way through the crowd and repairing my equipment, I went to Air Force One next and realized that all the consumables I had put on sale had been bought out. G.o.d d.a.m.n, business was great in the past couple of days!
I was as good as new after I restocked on consumables and repaired my equipment. I was feeling a bit dizzy because I had been online for too long, but looking at the war situation I doubt that anyone would have much time to rest.
Not far away, Li Chengfeng walked up to me and asked, "Resupply is done. What do we do now?"
I thought for a moment before answering, "We"ll march toward Impa.s.sable Great Wall again. The wall is destroyed, and there isn"t enough water to flood the entire plains, so it should have subsided by the time we arrive. After that, we"ll battle against G.o.d"s Domain at the Undead Hills, flatten Swallow Ear Canton, and attack Purple Grape City."
"Mn!"
New orders were given within the guild very soon. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls only had 70k+ players left, and together with b.l.o.o.d.y Mercenaries and our subguilds we were almost 650k strong. The good news was that our main force was still alive and kicking despite all the fierce battles we had fought so far, so this war was far from over!
We exited the city and rallied our forces together with Snowy Cathaya, Blazing Hot Lips, Purple Lily, Righteousness and the other guilds. Once we were ready, we departed immediately with our cavalry acting as the vanguard at the front. Time was of the essence. If we were to win this war, the faster we could pressure the enemy, the better.
……
On the way, I asked around for a POV close to the Impa.s.sable Great Wall.
As expected, despite my best efforts to avert the disaster, the floodwater still caught a huge number of our players. At least 3 million players were struggling in the water where only two outcomes awaited them: drowning or being killed by the enemy before that. Snowy Cathaya"s 12k+ Kui Dragon Cavalrymen played a huge role in this battle, however. When the terrain turned into water, the Kui Dragons immediately withdrew their hooves and grew fish tails and fish gills that kept their riders afloat. I saw Purple Marquis and his players slaughtering the enemy like they were playing Dynasty Warriors.
When we finally returned to White Rose Fortress, the flood had more or less subsided. Unfortunately, 3 million Chinese and countless Purple Grape City players had all drowned, increasing the casualty counters on both sides like crazy. The system marked it as killer-less deaths.
……
"That Red Maple is one h.e.l.luva a ruthless b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Gui Guzi said angrily.
I nodded in agreement. "He"s smart too. He knows how to utilize the terrain to his advantage, meaning that we can potentially take losses at every turn. It"s hard dealing with an opponent like this…"
Li Chengfeng said, "Thank goodness Lu Chen found out his plan early, or our retreat would"ve been far more panicked. I don"t want to know what would"ve happened if the flood had caught up to us while we were still fighting…"
Riding next to us, Hot and Sour Noodles voiced his agreement. "Yeah, I literally broke out in cold sweat earlier. If Lu Chen hadn"t warned us in time, we could"ve lost tens of millions of players, no, elites, in one go! It would"ve been over!"
I said, "Uncle, our next battle will be at Undead Hills, but the terrain is flat enough that it may as well be called Undead Plains. Have you thought of a strategy to deploy our cavalry troops?"
"Nope! All I know is that we"ll win as long as the Dragonlight Cavalry rides at the forefront!"
"f.u.c.k…"
……
I would"ve given him the finger if he wasn"t wrong. Everyone knew that cavalry troops are best deployed on wide, open, and flat terrain, but this especially applied to the Dragonlight Cavalry because they had the Dragon Soul Protection buff, a broken 50% boost to Attack and Defense that no other cavalry troop in the world possessed. Once they obtained a full buff from the bards, their stats could make any opponent cry like the b.i.t.c.hes they were!
We returned to the Impa.s.sable Great Wall in no time. However, when we were pa.s.sing through the area, we discovered that every pothole on the ground contained at least some equipment or item. It was the loot of all the players who had drowned or died fighting earlier!
"The Dragonlight Cavalry will continue to march, but the Cyan Tiger Cavalry should sweep the battlefield. It would be a shame to let these spoils of war desp.a.w.n on their own…" He Yi said with a smile.
Li Chengfeng hid a chuckle. "Our guild leader is kind…"
I dismounted and dipped my hands into a pothole. The very first item I fished out of the water was an Earth-grade metal armor, which caused countless people to shoot envious looks at me. A short time later, my bag was several hundred pieces of loot heavier. I couldn"t wait to unload them all at Air Force One and count the money I earned from them!
……
It didn"t take long for us to reach Undead Hills, and right next to it was a wide, open plain where Swallow Ear Canton sat at the horizon. Now that the Impa.s.sable Great Wall had fallen, Swallow Ear Canton was completely exposed to the full might of our army. It didn"t take a genius to know that it was destined to fall into ruins just like its sister city, Ice River Canton.