The server would close in half an hour. When it went online once again, the Nation Wars would begin!
d.a.m.n, doesn"t everything seem to be happening a little too quickly?
I didn"t waste any time in making my next decision. I immediately sent an order via the guild channel: "Everyone, listen up! I don"t care what you"re doing or where you are right now, I want every player from Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls to return to the city immediately. Repair your equipment and replenish your potions before using the teleportation formation to hop over to Dawn City. I want the leaders of our subguilds to issue the same orders as well! Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls will defend Dawn City with everything that we"ve got! We will defend our northeastern corridor if it"s the last thing we do!"
"We got it!" the commanders in the chat immediately replied.
……
I sat astride my Ice Qilin Horse as I stared at the Windy Trail in front of me. f.u.c.king h.e.l.l, this Nation War crept up on us like a thief in the night. Since we didn"t have any time to prepare for this, the Northern Alliance shouldn"t be too prepared either, right? Ah forget it, we won"t even have time to think about these kinds of things once the Nation Wars begin in earnest.
Beep!
I received a message from Hot and Sour Noodles, the administrator in charge of China"s VRMMO alliance. "Lu Chen, I need the three leaders of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls to immediately go to Dawn City"s royal palace. We need to discuss the upcoming Nation War. Things are happening far too quickly, so I hope that we can gather as soon as possible…"
"Yeah, I got it!"
I glanced at He Yi and Murong Mingyue. It seemed like they had received a similar message as well. So I immediately turned around and addressed Chaos Moon, Li Chengfeng, and Gui Guzi. "I want the rest of you to lead our elite Dragonlight Cavalry to the entrance of the Windy Trail. Set up camp there and go offline. I need all of you to come online at 10 pm sharp. We need to weather the first wave of attacks and buy enough time for the rest of our allies to gather!"
Gui Guzi nodded his head before replying in a solemn voice, "Even if we have to sacrifice ourselves, we definitely won"t allow the players from the Northern Alliance to charge into our territory!"
Li Chengfeng laughed and replied, "Robbing the rich and giving to the poor is my duty as a cop!"
Chaos Moon smiled cheerily at me. "Don"t worry about us!"
……
I immediately took out a return scroll and crushed it. It would be faster for me to return to Sky City and teleport to Dawn City from there.
Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+
After I appeared in the middle of Dawn City, I saw two beams of light appear behind me. He Yi hurriedly pulled Murong Mingyue onto her horse and all three of us flew toward the royal palace. Her Dragonlight Spirit Beast was extremely fast, so we both reached it in about three minutes.
Hot and Sour Noodles was sitting on a dais in front of the royal palace that was covered in fallen maple leaves. His sword was by his side as he twirled a maple leaf roguishly in his mouth. He looked just like one of those battle-crazed generals from a period drama.
"Ah, you"re here?"
"Yup."
He Yi helped Murong Mingyue dismount as I swung myself off the Ice Qilin Horse. We immediately kept our mounts in our mount s.p.a.ce and stood to the side as we waited for the rest of the guild leaders to a.s.semble. Hope fluttered in my heart as we waited. Lin Yixin should be among the players in attendance too. After all, we were gathering to discuss a most important matter! The long-awaited Nation Wars had finally begun and we had to score a win in our very first fight!
People kept streaming in one by one as all the guild leaders hurried over. Candle Dragon and his men arrived first, and Warsky, October Rain, and Lin Bing Dou Zhe arrived right behind them. A few minutes pa.s.sed before Luo River G.o.d of the Capital, Moonkiss, Stranger of Three Lifetimes, Dominating Heaven Blade, Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties and the rest of the guild leaders arrived. Nearly all of the leaders of the Top 20 guilds in China had arrived, but there was one extremely conspicuous exception. Snowy Cathaya"s guild leader, the Fruit Knife G.o.ddess Wind Fantasy, wasn"t here today. Purple Marquis and Clear Perfume had arrived in her stead.
"Qingqing?"
I stepped forward and asked in astonishment, "That…"
Sun Qingqing grinned at me. She knew what I was going to ask even before I had opened my mouth. "Yiyi is holding up the deal she made with her dad. She won"t be able to see you for a while and she"s already gone offline to eat a meal with her dad to apologize on your behalf. You dumba.s.s, why did you provoke Lin Xiao like that on the forums? You totally wasted Yiyi"s previous efforts…"
"Keke…"
"Alright, the meeting is about to start. Pay attention…"
"Okay."
……
Once everyone formed a circle around the dais, Hot and Sour Noodles instantly grabbed the sword that was lying beside him and shot to his feet. He said, "Comrades, the Nation War is upon us, so let"s cut the bulls.h.i.+t! Get all of your guild members to teleport to Dawn City immediately. Our greatest enemy is the Northern Alliance who is attacking from our northeastern corridor. We have to defend Dawn City or die trying!"
Warsky nodded his head and said, "I already got Laughing At The Heavens to take Warsky Alliance"s crack cavalry unit to the Windy Trail. They went offline after setting up camp there. The moment the server reopens, we will be the first to greet the enemy. We"ll buy enough time for everyone, no matter the cost."
Hot and Sour Noodles shot him an appreciative gaze as he continued. "We have gathered everyone here under the banner of the CGL and our main purpose is to discuss how we are going to divide our forces. After all, all of us are leaders of super guilds, so we can"t just pool all of our forces in Dawn City. We"ll have to defend the positions that lead to the city as well."
Candlelight Shadow cut in, "Zhang Chun, just speak your mind. What do you have planned for us? As long as it makes sense, everyone here will definitely fall in line."
Hot and Sour Noodles nodded his head. "Okay. The Windy Trail is long and narrow, so we have to make best use of this stretch of land. In my opinion, we should get Blazing Hot Lips to set up camp in the mountain directly to the west of Windy Trail. Warsky Alliance will set up camp in the mountain to its east. Both of these forces will be in charge of laying down suppressive fire and providing support for our allies in the valley proper. This will definitely be a punch in the mouth for the Northern Alliance."
Stranger of Three Lifetimes and Warsky nodded their heads. "We got it, we will definitely send our best players to reinforce that position."
"Thank you!"
A small smile appeared on Hot and Sour Noodles face as he waved his hand in the air, sharing the map with us. As he pointed at the expansive ravine outside of the Windy Trails, he said, "Once they break through the Windy Trails, the Northern Alliance will definitely try to create a huge battle line. As such, we need to lay an ambush for them at this point. We"ll need to surround this area and bombard them with fire from all sides. We can"t let them walk out of the Windy Trail unscathed. This is my proposal. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Purple Lily will take the western and eastern flank respectively, while Candle Dragon will face them head-on. If our three ace super guilds combine their forces, we"ll definitely be able to annihilate a large portion of their troops."
He Yi nodded her head. "We got it."
Candlelight Shadow smiled and said, "Gotcha. Candle Dragon will definitely make these invaders rue their decision to attack us!"
Luo River G.o.d of the Capital replied in a bland voice, "We"ll definitely give it our all."
……
Hot and Sour Noodles pointed at the map again before continuing. "The Northern Alliance"s army is simply far too big, so our three ace guilds might not be able to hold their positions for too long. The area behind our first line of defense is a marshy area known as the Sunset Swamp. It will be impossible for any riders to mount up in that kind of terrain, and movement speed will be slowed by about 30%. It"s a treacherous piece of ground to cross and it"s the best place for us to snipe them from afar. As such, I want G.o.ds of Destruction and Peach Garden to dispatch their elite long-range players to that area to lie in wait for the Northern Alliance"s army. Hit them where it hurts!"
Dominating Heaven Blade raised his sword in the air as he shouted, "Understood!"
Indigo Collar gave an appreciative smile as he said, "Okay!"
At this moment, Clear Perfume chimed in, "Why does all the top-ranked guilds have missions a.s.signed but us? Uncle Hot and Sour Noodles, what is Snowy Cathaya going to do? Don"t treat us as if we"re not here, okay!?"
Hot and Sour Noodles couldn"t help but chuckle. "We aren"t. After all, who would dare ignore the guild led by our Fruit Knife G.o.ddess, Beautiful Little Pepper? We have a very important mission for you. Snowy Cathaya is to act as the reserve army and the main defensive force for Dawn City. The moment anything goes wrong, we"ll have to rely on Snowy Cathaya to put up a brilliant defense of this city!"
Purple Marquis let out a hearty laugh. "Okay! This is a mission that I like! I"ve always found siege battles to be the most interesting!"
……
Hot and Sour Noodles laughed and nodded his head as he started going into the details of his plan. He described his entire strategy in detail, from the first engagement to our plans for fighting in the streets of Dawn City if it came to that. I had to say that Hot and Sour Noodles was truly a talented strategist. He arrived at the same conclusions as I did even though we hadn"t discussed anything beforehand. I felt very a.s.sured after this little meeting of his. Appointing a person like this at the helm was a very wise decision indeed.
Once he finished detailing his strategy, Hot and Sour Noodles suddenly looked toward me and chuckled. "Lin Xiao thinks that our decision to defend Dawn City is a foolish one, so both I and Lu Chen have something to prove in this battle. Let"s show him that we can win this "impossible battle"! Let"s show him the strength of those who never give up!"
I nodded my head as I shot Hot and Sour Noodles a grateful smile. I unsheathed my sword with a steely rasp and raised it high in the air as I said, "It is my honor to fight beside each and every one of you on this glorious day. May this battle be one that carves our name into history! Even if we fall into obscurity, even if no one remembers our faces or deeds, they will at least remember our names! Our names that will have been carved into the annals of history now and forevermore!"
Warsky, Indigo Collar, and Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties unsheathed their swords and raised them high in the air as well. My little speech had clearly gotten their blood pumping. They let out hearty laughs as they declared, "We won"t stop fighting until we die!"
The female guild leaders covered their mouths and laughed. This was the sort of grand battle that every man dreamed of. Men really were bellicose creatures!
……
When Hot and Sour Noodles saw that we were about to swear an oath with blood-smeared lips, he nodded his head appreciatively and said, "Alright, then it"s settled! Everyone, go and make the necessary arrangements for the upcoming battle. Blazing Hot Lips and Warsky Alliance will be positioned all the way in front, so it"s very likely that you will suffer the heaviest casualties in this battle. My apologies in advance!"
"There"s nothing to apologize for!" Neither Stranger of Three Lifetimes or Warsky were petty people.
Hot and Sour Noodles laughed. "Okay, then go offline as soon as you can. We have twelve hours to rest! The battle commences at around 10:30 pm, so we should all get some sleep if we can. It"ll be very likely that we"ll be online for a very long time after this. Of course, the ones who die first can turn in early, haha!"
Everyone laughed at that last remark of his before we went our separate ways.
He Yi, Murong Mingyue, and I made a quick trip around Dawn City to make sure that our engineers were building catapults and other siege weapons to defend the city. After that, we repaired our armor and replenished our potions. I stocked up on my Rank 10 Saint Spirit Potions and gave some to both He Yi and Murong Mingyue as well. After that, I gave a bunch of Dragonlight Armored Horse Sealing Stones to Du Thirteen. He was practically dancing with joy as he took the Sealing Stones from me and he instantly bound one to himself on the spot.
……
When we arrived at Dawn Valley, we saw that our guild had already established its defensive line. We had formed a line that was about ten kilometers long to the right of the entrance to the Windy Trail. Candle Dragon had a.s.sembled right beside us and Purple Lily was facing us. Fate was truly a fickle thing. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Purple Lily had deep grudges against Candle Dragon, but fate had seen fit to tie all three of us together in this alliance to beat back the army of the Northern Alliance.
Beiming Xue and Murong Mingyue and the rest of the ranged and support players set up camp in our designated zone before they went offline. Our cavalry troops had another important role to play in this battle. The 10000 Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen and the 2000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen would be our ace in the hole during this battle. We would wait for the perfect opportunity to unleash them on the battlefield. We would only use our trump card when it could be used to the most devastating effect.
……
"Lu Chen, go offline and rest!"
"d.a.m.n it, I just woke up…"
"Just go offline anyway. Be good! The Nation Wars are about to start, so your big sis will treat you to lunch…"
Murong Mingyue"s voice was so unbearably cloying and sticky that it sent a shudder down my spine as I went offline.