"What the h.e.l.l is the meaning of this, Lu Chen?"
Two fully-armored swordsmen grabbed my arm in an attempt to pull me away. Both were strong players since they were corps commanders.
"Get lost! It"s none of your business!"
Too angry for common courtesies, I swung the flat side of my blade at them and activated Great Earth Transformation at the same time, blowing them away instantly. There was nothing they could do to stop me if I felt like it.
……
Zhang Chun watched me calmly as he replied, "Calm down, Lu Chen. Does it look like I wanted to make this choice? You saw me sending over 50% of my remaining troops to Final Duel Valley yourself. Do you think I enjoy sending off my people to their deaths? You know why I did what I did. Who else on this entire Wildfire Plains is capable of stalling Elephant City"s advance besides the Dragonlight Cavalry? Who else besides you or Li Chengfeng possesses the ability to command an uneven battle like this?"
I struck a giant rock next to me hard before yelling furiously, "That is not a reason to send my men to their deaths!"
Zhang Chun merely smiled and patted me on the shoulder. "I know what you"re feeling, really. No one likes lying to their own brothers and sisters…"
I looked away with reddened eyes. "So what? Is it enough to atone for our sins? Can it reverse our mistake?"
I got on my mount after saying that.
"Where are you going, Lu Chen?" Zhang Chun exclaimed in shock.
He Yi and Lin Yixin asked the same question, "Where are you going?"
I replied slowly, "I"m heading to Final Duel Valley. If my brothers and sisters must pay for this war, the least I can do is to let them know what that price will be, and that their sacrifice will not be in vain!"
Lin Yixin stared at me. "You"re not going to commit suicide, are you? Purple Grape City is your battlefield. You"re not allowed to abandon your responsibility for a moment"s emotion, stupid!"
I replied softly, "Don"t worry. I will return! I leave the battle in your hands until then!"
Stranger of Three Lifetimes replied, "Don"t worry. Come back soon!"
"Mn."
……
I rode toward Final Duel Valley at full speed. The Armored Ice Qilin Horse was fast, and I used a Greedy Wolf Card to buff my movement speed by 40%. As a result, I was able to reach the periphery of the map in less than an hour. A b.l.o.o.d.y battle would soon take place in this valley, and my brothers and sisters" blood would soon stain its ground even redder than it already was.
The moment I entered the valley, I received a system notice that stated—
Ding~!
System Notice: Player, please be informed that you have entered "Final Duel Valley" and entered the combat state "Final Duel” While Final Duel is active, if you kill a player, you will gain 10% of their total experience. If you die, you will lose all your experience, your level will return to 0, you will drop all the equipment in your bag, and there"s a 70% chance you will drop the equipment you"re wearing!
……
I was aghast by what I read. This was even worse than what was described in the database. Whoever was killed while Final Duel was in effect would lose all their levels, inventory, and there was even a chance to drop equipment! It was basically restarting from zero!
It was at this moment I saw a group of Chinese players approaching one side of the canyon. They were led by none other than Li Chengfeng, Heaven"s Rain and Diamond Dust. They were looting the battlefield, which meant that they had just fought a battle.
……
"Vice guild leader big bro?" Heaven"s Rain noticed me immediately.
"Lu Chen?" Li Chengfeng looked surprised by my appearance.
I rode up to them and dismounted. Then, I apologized solemnly, "I"m sorry. I didn"t know about the Final Duel until after I had sent you over!"
Li Chengfeng smiled a little. "It"s fine. We know."
"Did you all know about the price?"
"Sure. So what?" Li Chengfeng spoke so casually it was almost as if it wouldn"t cost him everything.
Even Heaven"s Rain said, "We"re fine, vice leader big bro, really …"
Li Chengfeng said, "Really, it"s nothing. It"s just restarting from zero, and that"s only if we die here."
My eyes reddened even more. I abruptly plunged my sword into the ground and yelled, "I, Lu Chen, am the one who sent you all here. It may result in you losing everything. It may also result in you experiencing failure in humiliation. However!"
I paused for a second before dropping to one knee, and my voice grew into a full blown shout. "I swear that I will not fail you all no matter what!"
Li Chengfeng s.h.i.+vered and slowly dismounted. He too dropped to one knee and said to me, "I am the same. There are many things I regret in life, but becoming brothers with you is one I will never regret!"
Swhoosh swhoosh swhoos.h.!.+ Countless Dragonlight and Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen dismounted and dropped to one knee. Soon, all 50000 Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players had one knee on the ground.
The players of the other guilds were staring at us with varying degrees of shock and confusion. Some of them might never understand what we were feeling right now.
I looked back at everyone with glistening eyes and said strongly, "My brothers and sisters, I may not be able to address you all by name, and I may have never even spoken a word with you until today. But today, we share a promise with each other that will not be broken no matter the cost! I, Lu Chen, will not let you down! The enemy will pay for your sacrifice today! For this lifetime at least, we are forever brothers and sisters!"
Everyone nodded in unison.
I pulled my sword out of the ground and returned to my mount. I shot them a confident smile and said, "Give it your all, my eternal brothers and sisters!"
The Armored Ice Qilin Horse let out a long neigh, and I departed Final Duel Valley as quickly as I could. I didn"t dare to look behind me even once because I was afraid my emotions would overcome me, and I would fight side-by-side with them until death. I couldn"t do so, however. Just like Lin Yixin had said earlier, my battlefield was Purple Grape City. If I must lose 50000 brothers and sisters at Final Duel Valley, the least I could do was to make their sacrifice worth it!
Let this meeting be our farewell to each other!
……
An hour later, I arrived at Purple Grape City.
A war had already broken out around the entire city. It was a cla.s.sic siege battle where countless catapult payloads, magic spells and arrows soared across the air while the ground troops tried to seize control of the walls. Like in any siege battle, the defenders held the absolute advantage in terms of terrain. The Purple Grape City players were able to inflict ma.s.sive damage to our troops by exploiting their height advantage, but everyone gave it their all despite the terrible odds.
Countless cloud ladders had already been propped against the walls, but the wallwalk was overflowing with high-level j.a.panese players. Almost no one we sent up could occupy any part of the walls at all.
"Lu Chen!"
Hot and Sour Noodles was pus.h.i.+ng a siege tower toward the walls when he caught sight of me. He immediately shouted, "Go help the ones climbing up the wall! We need someone to gain a foothold for us! It"s all up to you now!"
"Got it!"
I nodded and spurred my mount forward. Before I even reached the walls, I saw a brawny figure falling from the sky and cras.h.i.+ng painfully against the ground. He was none other than High Fighting Spirits. If even he couldn"t withstand the enemy"s attacks, how much better could the others possibly perform?
"Watch out, Sister Eve!"
Lin Yixin and He Yi were holding the ropes of the cloud ladder and hanging at the edge of the wall. However, they didn"t dare to climb any higher because blades, arrows and spells were flying over their heads every second. They could potentially be one-shot the moment they tried.
I ran up the cloud ladder without hesitation and at top speed. Exploiting the fact that I was still at full health, I activated Ghost Deity s.h.i.+eld, ran right past Lin Yixin and attempted to climb up to the wallwalk. However, an enemy berserker let out a mighty shout and swung his war axe at me, "Get down!"
Chiang!
Ghost Deity s.h.i.+eld shuddered from the impact, but I saw his movement clearly and was able to thrust my sword beneath the axe blade and stop myself from being flung away. Then, I abruptly spun around, pulled the berserker over the wall and switched position with him instead.
Pa!
The moment I was over the edge of the wall, I immediately dropped my whole body to the floor and dodged a million attacks. Then, I rolled across the ground and summoned the Phantom Wolf King and the apparition to buy me more time. After rolling and hacking at the enemy"s ankles for about five yards, I abruptly jumped to my feet and fired Burning Blade Slash + Thousand Ice Slash + Coiling Dragon Revolution combo immediately. Then, I fired 12 Ancient Seals in a row!
Bang bang bang bang!
The Ancient Seals dealt critical damage to countless players and one-shot all of them, creating a fair-sized s.p.a.ce on the wallwalk. He Yi and Lin Yixin immediately seized the opportunity to climb up the wall, summon their mounts and battle in earnest!
It wasn"t long before more players climbed onto the walls. After Purple Marquis, Eyes Like Water, Stranger of Three Lifetimes, Lian Xin, Beiming Xue, Murong Mingyue and more appeared on the wallwalk, they swiftly formed a thousand-man party and took over a 100-meter section on the wall. It was a cup of water on a burning cart of firewood, however. The enemy was too numerous. It wasn"t realistic to expand our domain any further than this.
……
The Purple Ying Sword"s blade was chipped all over the place. I had no idea how many enemies I had killed up until this point. All I knew was that I executed Burning Blade Slash + Thousand Ice Slash + Coiling Dragon Revolution combo every 6 seconds. Coiling Dragon Revolution was a ranged skill, so it didn"t fall under the two-skills-per-6-seconds hard limit of the Warrior cla.s.s. Otherwise, I would be doing far more damage than just this.
The bitter fighting had spread to every corner of Purple Grape City at this point. Not only was it surrounded by Chinese players from every direction, Hot and Sour Noodles was rallying more reinforcements from the Center. Barring any unexpected circ.u.mstance, another twenty to thirty million players should reach us in about 7 hours. That would certainly help with the siege!
Red Maple did his best to aid his troops, but he was only one man. We had killed almost all the players of the second and third strongest guilds of Purple Grape City at Wildfire Plains earlier, meaning that G.o.d"s Domain was all alone now. This was just karma they deserved though. They should"ve thought that this might happen when they attacked Floating Ice City.
……
Pa!
Some time later, Hot and Sour Noodles climbed onto the wall and looked at me, saying, "I just received the latest battle report from Fallen Moon Ridge!"
I exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "Candle Dragon and Warsky Alliance won?"
"Nope! They suffered a horrible loss..."
"What the f.u.c.k!"