Hot and Sour Noodles said urgently and furiously, "White Rose Fortress is about to fall!"
"What? I… I thought that several guilds are guarding it right now? How is that possible?" I exclaimed in shock.
Hot and Sour Noodles responded, "We didn"t see this coming until it was too late. While you were wiping out G.o.d"s Domain at Floating Ice City, almost 30000 Cyan Beast members infiltrated Sky City from the west side of Dragonbone Mountain Range and hit White Rose Fortress from behind. Led by Breeze and Rain, the strongest cavalry of Cyan Beast punched through the gate by force at the same time the Purple Grape City players on the east attacked. White Rose Fortress could fall anytime now…"
"f.u.c.k!"
I swore out loud before sucking in a deep breath. Like it or not, it looked like our plans to catch some rest had just turned into smoke.
……
"What"s wrong?" He Yi asked me.
After I explained everything, Warsky, Stranger of Three Lifetimes, Moonkiss and more people immediately expressed their shock and confusion. They couldn"t figure out how Breeze and Rain was able to slip 30000 Cyan Beast"s cavalrymen into Sky City"s domain undetected.
However, Gui Guzi said, "Actually, I think I know how he did it."
"Tell us," Li Chengfeng said.
Gui Guzi pointed to the northeast before explaining, "I once scaled the peaks when I was grinding at Dragonbone Mountain Range. The slope itself was vertical and impossible to climb under normal circ.u.mstances, but I noticed that there was a long section that was covered in vines. Unless there is another secret path I"m not aware of, Cyan Beast"s players most likely climbed their way into our domain using those vines. That"s why they were able to avoid detection."
"d.a.m.n that Breeze and Rain!" Warsky uttered while clenching his fist. "Of all the people, it just had to be the left and right hand of G.o.d of War, the legendary Agility Warrior! No, this is unacceptable. Let"s head to White Rose Fortress, retake it and take out Breeze and Rain right now!"
Moonkiss said quietly, "Hmph. First it was Purple Grape City, and now Cyan Earth City and Elephant City have joined the battle as well. Worse, none of them are small fries by any means."
"Small fry or not, we need to take them out." I pointed to the east and said, "Anyway, let"s head to White Rose Fortress right now. a.s.suming that there is no way to save the fortress, we need to secure the pa.s.s before it falls completely. It will be bad if j.a.pan"s main force is able to push past the pa.s.s."
"Yes, we can decide our strategy after we get there!"
And so we all got to our mounts, teleported back to Sky City to resupply ourselves, and set out toward White Rose Fortress once more. This time though, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls" army didn"t just consist of cavalry anymore. The main guild, b.l.o.o.d.y Mercenaries and all 15 of our subguilds joined together to form an army of nearly 700k, meaning that for once we weren"t ma.s.sively outnumbered by the enemy anymore. Also, our players were among the best of the best in the world thanks to the WEL drawing many amazing talents into our guild.
Overall, we were now much stronger than we were before, and there was no better time than the Nation War to test out our mettle!
While we raced across the forest, I looked down at the Ancient Divine Dragon and noted that it was still coiled around my arm and asleep. Only heaven knows how much longer it was going to stay like this. It was an absolute glutton for EXP, and despite my best efforts I still wasn"t able to push it to Level 100 and transform it into an adult. Unfortunately, it didn"t look like I would be able to ride it for this Nation War.
……
Nothing happened during the march, so I took my time clarifying a few things in my mind.
Purple Grape City hadn"t tried to invade further into Sky City after destroying Floating Ice City. Red Maple knew that he didn"t have the numbers to occupy Sky City and was just using Floating Ice City as a frontier base or an aircraft carrier that kept our forces intimidated and controlled.
Too bad for him, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was ultimately able to foil his strategy. He hid his 100k-strong Wildfire Riders at a valley near Wild Pheasant Ridge, but he didn"t antic.i.p.ate that we would circle to the back, sneak across a hidden path and hit them from the back, annihilating them. As a result, he had no choice but to move to Plan B.
Plan B was initiated by Cyan Earth City. Many people thought that Cyan Beast was done when their a.s.sault on Black Coast was foiled, but it had now been proven that that was not the case. Purple Grape City and Cyan Earth City were obviously allied with each other as they both shared the same goal of occupying or abandoning Sky City. Either choice would be a victory for them. Now, after infiltrating our domain and lying low for so long, the number one guild of Cyan Earth City led by Breeze and Rain himself finally made their first real move and was close to occupying White Rose Fortress.
A horrible realization entered my mind at that moment. The enemy was trying to wear us down through attrition warfare, and they were succeeding. We had beaten back Purple Grape City"s players, but Cyan Earth City"s players took their place instead and continued the a.s.sault, giving us no time to rest at all. The lack of any rest between the a.s.saults was a weakness we simply couldn"t make up for.
……
We saw smoke in the distance when we arrived at the plains that bordered White Rose Fortress. A big battle was ongoing, and the plains to our side was covered in Sky City, Wind City, and even Vanished G.o.d City players.
Rumble rumble rumble...
White Rose Fortress was shaking and crumbling. Then, an entire section of the wall—about a hundred meters or so—suddenly collapsed and crushed countless players to death. The collapse set off a chain reaction, and soon, the entire wall on that side of White Rose Fortress collapsed as well. Not even the huge war G.o.d statue inside the city, the symbol of Sky City, was safe from destruction, collapsing slowly after being pummeled by the debris from the wall. In the end, the fortress wasn"t able to withstand the vortex of war surrounding it.
On one side, the blood-red IDs of the j.a.pan players formed a red sea on one side of the canyon. Of course, our players were just as numerous, if not more, on the other side of the canyon. However, j.a.pan also had the help of India, namely Cyan Earth City and Elephant City. This battle was the opposite of the battle against G.o.d"s Domain. This time, we were the ones who had the quant.i.ty, while they had the quality.
Standing atop the ruins that was White Rose Fortress, Hegemon Palace"s Little Piglet was fighting and riding back and forth on his black warhorse. He shouted, "Ancient Sword, Snowy Cathaya and Candle Dragon have already fought and saved Floating Ice City! As one of the Top 10 guilds of China, Hegemon Palace cannot lose to them, you hear me!? Now, follow me and hit Purple Grape City! Wipe them out from the surface of this earth!"
A cacophony of thunderous rumbling filled the air. It was impossible to tell who was going to win.
……
Meanwhile, I spurred my mount up a hill about 50 meters tall and to get a better look of the battlefield. If I was certain about one thing, it would be that this battle wouldn"t be ending anytime soon. White Rose Fortress was about 5 kilometers wide, allowing around ten thousand players to engage each other at the same time. Behind these frontliners were several million players who were all waiting for their turn to fight the enemy. What did this mean? It meant that, at least for now, we couldn"t help White Rose Fortress even if we wanted to. There was literally no s.p.a.ce for us to squeeze through.
Lin Yixin, He Yi, Li Chengfeng, Moonkiss, Stranger of Three Lifetimes and more rode up the slope I was on as well. It was a good location that gave an un.o.bstructed view over more than half of the battlefield.
"Looks like we"re a bit late," Lin Yixin said with a smile.
I nodded. "Yeah. Hegemon Palace, Mad Dragon, G.o.ds of Destruction, Rose of the Holy Domain and Hall of Immortality got ahead of us."
Li Chengfeng stared at the battle a bit longer before asking with a smile, "You know what? Why don"t we log out of the game and take our rest? It doesn"t look like the battle"s going to end anytime soon. Just make sure to exchange contact details so we can wake each other up in case something happens. Honestly, it"s been over ten hours since I ate anything. I"m so hungry I can die…"
"Yeah, me too…" Lin Yixin blinked her big, gorgeous eyes before looking at me.
I pursed my lips. "Same. In fact, I would be sleeping already if it wasn"t for that G.o.d-forsaken White Rose Fortress."
It was at this moment Hot and Sour Noodles rode up to us and greeted us with a smile, "You"re all here!"
"h.e.l.lo, uncle!" We all greeted him in unison.
Hot and Sour Noodles chuckled before surveying the battlefield. "Good ol" positional warfare, huh? Hmph hmph…"
I sheathed my sword and said, "Uncle, Ancient Sword would like to log off and rest now."
"Oh, why"s that?" He looked at us in surprise.
"Because we"re tired?" I shrugged. "Our cavalry had to defend White Rose Fortress for a long time before ambus.h.i.+ng G.o.d"s Domain at Wild Pheasant Ridge with barely a moment"s rest. Everyone"s starting to reach our limits. Plus, you can see for yourselves that we can"t interfere with the battle of White Rose Fortress, not to mention that I"m bad at positional warfare…"
Hot and Sour Noodles teased me. "Tsk tsk, am I hearing right? Did you just claim that you"re not good at some kind of battle?"
"Sure…"
I didn"t bother hiding it. "Positional warfare is boring as h.e.l.l. It"s mostly pitting two armies against one another, adjusting things here and there and praying for the best. I prefer being the ambusher. I like being on the move and seeking out opportunities to land the killing blow."
Hot and Sour Noodles licked his lips and said, "It is true you"ve all worked hard to defend our country. Very well, you may log off and leave this place to me. You need not worry about anything for the next 15 hours."
"Thanks!"
If there was one person I could entrust a defense to, it would be Hot and Sour Noodles. Zhang Chun was a calm, collected person with all the good qualities you would expect from a middle-aged man. His meticulousness also made him a good commander to direct a positional battle like this. He couldn"t be relied on to make a breakthrough, but he could be trusted to make as few mistakes as possible. Slow and steady wins the race, and there was nothing more important than this trait in a battle like this.
……
"You heard the man! Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, you may log out and get your rest now!" I ordered loudly.
Everyone let out an audible sigh of relief. After planting his Spear of the Knight G.o.d in the ground, Gui Guzi immediately crawled into a hole on the ground before poking his head out. "Anyone feels like sleeping here with me? My bladder"s about to burst, so be quick…"
This buffoon had always enjoyed sleeping in graves since as early as Floating Ice City. In fact, he never spent a yuan on a tent. Now that he was a high-level undead, he could crawl into a random hole in the ground and achieve the same effect as resting in a tent. While Beiming Xue and I were both undead, let"s just say that we didn"t possess Gui Guzi"s boldness and free spirit.
Lin Yixin said to Hot and Sour Noodles, "In that case, Snowy Cathaya would like to take their rest as well, uncle. We promise to return online at 9 am tomorrow and continue the 15-hour work schedule…"
Hot and Sour Noodles nodded. "No problem. Snowy Cathaya and Ancient Sword are both the key forces of this Nation War, so you should conserve your strength for when the time is right, and that time is tomorrow."
"Mn."
I was about to log off when Stranger of Three Lifetimes suddenly called out to me, "Lu Chen, wait…"
"Yeah?"
"I want to share a detailed map of Purple Grape City"s domain with you. There…"
"Oh, thanks…"
The map appeared in my database later. Wonderful. I can study it later after I"ve downloaded it onto my PC.
……
The first thing I did after taking off my helmet was to rush into the toilet. Just like Gui Guzi, my bladder was about to burst!
Knock knock...
While I was relieving myself, Chaos Moon knocked on the door and said, "Lu Chen, when you"re ready, let"s head out and catch supper. I"m hungry!"