I wanted to thank the Northern Alliance for their mercy because they ambushed Dawn City at least a dozen of times, but took out the teleportation formation only. The equipment repair vendor, potion vendor and other important NPCs were all still alive and healthy. Because of this, we were able to repair our equipment and restock on potions much easier than our enemies. We could resupply at a fortress-style supply point very quickly since our cavalry could ride to any corner of Dawn Valley in half an hour at most. On the other hand, the Northern Alliance would have to go on a 4-hour long march or longer just to reach their closest supply point. This was one of the areas we held an advantage over the Northern Alliance.
……
The clanking sounds of metal rang in my ears. Right now, the equipment repair shop was surrounded by the Dragonlight Cavalry. Out of all our troops, the Dragonlight Cavalry was the unit that suffered the most equipment damage. Countless people had to fight on bare a.s.ses, literally.
I saw the fatigue on their faces and felt a bit of pity for them.
Xu Yang said with a frown on his face, "We can"t hold on much longer. The other guilds such as Snowy Cathaya, Warsky Alliance and Candle Dragon all got to rest over 10 hours already, but we haven"t slept a wink since the war began over 30 hours ago. If we don"t rest soon, I"m afraid that some of our people are actually going to die from exhaustion."
I nodded in agreement and contacted Hot and Sour Noodles. "Uncle!"
"What is it, Lu Chen?"
"I want to inform you that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is logging off to take a 10-hour break. My men are exhausted and starving in real life, and if they keep this up, they"re probably going to suffer from health problems. The other guilds should be able to hold the frontline while we"re gone, right?"
Hot and Sour Noodles replied, "But the situation at the frontline isn"t good. Candle Dragon lost almost half their entire army, Snowy Cathaya isn"t faring much better, and Baidicheng and Hunting Moon Dynasty lost over 40% of their troops in less than 5 hours. If Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players log off now, then…"
I smiled indifferently and said, "Uncle, I"m not negotiating with you, I"m informing you. That"s that. Don"t tell me you can"t win a Nation War just because we"re gone for a while."
Hot and Sour Noodles was caught off-guard by my forceful tone, but he relented and said with a helpless smile, "Got it. Please log in immediately after 10 hours. We"ve all witnessed Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls" power, and we know it"s going to be very difficult to defend the city without you."
"Mn."
……
I turned off the communicator and gathered my people. "Alright, everyone. The commander has given us permission to log out and take a well-deserved break. You"re all going to get 30 minutes in the toilet, 30 minutes in the dining room, and 9 hours of beauty sleep. Amazing, right? 10 hours later, or 10:30 am sharp tomorrow, you will all log back into the game and a.s.semble here at Dawn City!"
"h.e.l.l yeah!" Everyone was pleased to hear this.
I added, "Dragonlight Cavalry, your rest schedule will be different from the others. You will only get six and a half hours rest, because I want to see you all at 8:30 am sharp tomorrow, understand?"
"Are you planning something?" Gui Guzi and Chaos Moon asked at nearly the same time.
I said with steely eyes, "Correct. Tomorrow, we will ride through Windy Trail and raid the Northern Alliance"s supply lines! We will starve the millions of Northern Alliance players who invaded our homeland to death!"
High Fighting Spirits laughed loudly. "Now that"s a mission I can enjoy!"
Of course you do. Everyone likes to raid someone"s behind, if you get what I mean...
……
After everyone had logged out of the game, I took a moment to contact Li Chengfeng. "Chengfeng, how is it? The gang just logged out to take a 10-hour break. What about you guys? Can you log out and rest for a bit?"
I heard Li Chengfeng panting. "No! I"ve already talked about this with everyone. We"ll continue fighting until we draw our last breath!"
I asked, "How is the battle situation over there?"
Li Chengfeng let out a chuckle but avoided a direct answer, "Don"t worry. Just log out, take your rest and leave everything to me. I promise you that no harm will come to China"s supply lines, and who knows, maybe that f.u.c.ker t.i.tan G.o.d will be dead by the time you log back into the game!"
I swallowed some saliva and asked, "t.i.tan G.o.d is very strong, isn"t he?"
Li Chengfeng replied grimly, "Yep. He"s as skilled as Farewell Song, and his equipment is almost at the same level as guild leader Eve. To call him a tough nut to crack would be an understatement. I"ve clashed against him several times already, but I wasn"t able to end his life. I understand why the Fruit Knife G.o.ddess failed to kill him now!"
"Got it. Keep up the good fight, okay?"
"Of course!"
I brought up the system interface and logged out of the game. However, I couldn"t help but feel a tinge of worry. Everyone knew that Lin Yixin"s killing potential was exceptional, and there was almost no one in the entire China server who could take a combo from her under the armor break effect of Extreme Break. But the fact was t.i.tan G.o.d survived Lin Yixin and proved himself to be some of the absolute best players in the entire world. I understood now why this man was considered the invincible king of t.i.tan City.
……
The world darkened, and I took off my helmet. It was very late in the night, it seemed.
I walked out of the room and poured myself some warm water. After He Yi, Murong Mingyue and Beiming Xue came out of their rooms, we discussed for a bit and decided to buy some food at the nearby night market. After gaming for over 30 hours, bread simply wasn"t enough to satisfy our appet.i.te anymore.
I spent half an hour was.h.i.+ng my face and rinsing my mouth. To save time, He Yi and Murong Mingyue entered the bathroom together and tugged at my heartstrings with the sounds of splas.h.i.+ng water and cute laughter.
A while later, Beiming Xue sat next to me with a gla.s.s of boiled water in her hands. She said with half-closed eyelids, "Big bro, I feel so sleepy…"
"Not yet. You can sleep after you eat supper. You"ll definitely feel it in the morning if you fall asleep now."
"Mn."
Beiming Xue leaned her head on my shoulder and said, "This Nation War is just too big. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is powerful, but I feel like a flimsy boat in the middle of a raging thunderstorm that is the Nation War. There were plenty of moments we could"ve faltered and lost everything. Hehe. I wonder if we can really hold on for another 36 hours."
I exhaled and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Leaning back against the sofa, I said, "Man proposes but G.o.d disposes. If we give it our all, our conscience will be clear even if we do lose in the end."
Beiming Xue smiled. "Mn!"
Fifteen minutes later, He Yi and Murong Mingyue exited the bathroom to let Beiming Xue in. After everyone was done bathing—an activity I skipped to preserve time—we went downstairs and ordered a couple of dishes at an open-air restaurant at the night market. After filling our tummies with hot, steamy rice, we returned to the workshop, pulled the blanket over our bodies and slept like the dead.
I dreamed of many chaotic things. I saw flas.h.i.+ng blades, shadowed swords, scattering blood, iron hooves and more. It was as if my entire gaming life was playing out before my eyes like a movie until finally, they all converged into the singular image of a female fighter carrying a dagger.
I miss Lin Yixin so much...
……
Du du...
The next day, I woke up reluctantly to the alarm. Six hours had pa.s.sed by in the blink of an eye!
After I got out of bed and put on my clothes, I attacked the kitchen and heated some food. I had no idea how long it had been lying inside the fridge. I was sweaty after I finished breakfast, so I spent 7 minutes taking a quick bath and came out feeling as fresh as new. I then rushed back into my room and logged back into the game!
Swhoos.h.!.+
When I appeared in Dawn City"s inn, I saw a lot of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players logging in as well. They were all Dragonlight Cavalry.
I ran out of the hotel and summoned the Armored Ice Qilin Horse. I then summoned my apparition and the Phantom Wolf King after I climbed onto my mount. Less than five minutes later, all 1400+ Dragonlight Cavalrymen including Gui Guzi, Heaven"s Rain, Diamond Dust, High Fighting Spirits and the others had come online as well. Everyone was here except He Yi. She had wanted to join the expedition, but after I said, "What if the all-nighter affects your beauty?", she relented and returned to her bed.
"And... that"s everyone!" Gui Guzi said with a smile.
We formed our parties. We didn"t have Royal Road, but stat-wise, it wasn"t too big of a detriment since we still had Martial G.o.d, Knight G.o.d and two Knight Generals.
We rode to the city gate only to discover that Dawn City was jampacked with players inside and outside the city, and the archers had taken the top of the walls in well-organized formations. It looked like the Northern Alliance had made it all the way to the city during the 8 hours we were gone.
Many archers and mages were busy buying potions near the northern gate of Dawn City before rus.h.i.+ng back up the walls. I saw tensed knights and archers ready to take action at a moment"s notice, and heard loud choruses of battle cries everywhere. A sea of red seemed to fill the horizon. What the f.u.c.k? Did the enemy surround Dawn City already?
Chiang!
I unsheathed my weapon and said, "Follow me!"
The moment I led the Dragonlight Cavalry out of the gate, I saw Snowy Cathaya, The Monarch Descends, Hunting Moon Dynasty, Righteousness and more guilds holding the line about 500 meters away from the city. They were in the middle of a fierce battle right now, with blade clanging, fireb.a.l.l.s flying about and flaming rocks cras.h.i.+ng on top of unfortunate Chinese players who happened to be in the area.
I let out a sigh of relief. It would"ve been really dangerous if the Northern Alliance had gotten close to the city. The Fire Catapult was a siege weapon, so its true power lay in its ability to damage defensive structures during sieges. There was no way in h.e.l.l Dawn City could"ve survived a hit from those things.
"Lu Chen, you"ve finally returned!"
Hot and Sour Noodles rode up to us and said, "The battle is way too intense, dammit! The Northern Alliance had taken out every man and woman they could, and their army is at least 3 to 5 times bigger than ours. Thankfully, we hold an advantage over them in a battle of attrition, and we know that they"re running out of potions, consumables and food because their advance has slowed considerably. Right now, they"re mostly resorting to using their Fire Catapults to push back our battle lines."
I asked, "How many Fire Catapults do they still have, uncle?"
"There are probably 20 Fire Catapults left, and they"re all focused around the northern gate. See that?" Hot and Sour Noodles pointed to the front. "It"s right over there. Practically no one could survive the focused fire of 20 Fire Catapults, and even Snowy Cathaya"s elite cavalry troop was driven back multiple times despite being led by Purple Marquis himself."
I gritted my teeth and said, "Just leave it to us! Uncle, I want you to mobilize ten thousand riders and tear open a hole in the wing so that I and my Dragonlight Cavalry can break through the encirclement."
"Oh? What for?"
"Without people on the outside, we won"t be able to attack the enemy"s supply lines or reinforcements. The Northern Alliance soldiers in Dawn Valley must be starving right now, so we might as well worsen their hunger. In the next 24 hours, me and my men will do our best to starve them all to death!"
Hot and Sour Noodles burst out laughing. "You only have a little over a thousand Dragonlight Cavalrymen left. Do you really think you can complete this mission?"
I raised my sword and declared, "If not us, who can?"
That shut up Hot and Sour Noodles immediately. He gave us a nod and said, "Alright, we"ll do as you say. I"ll order my own guild"s Greedy Wolf Cavalry to cover for you while you escape. Boy, know that this 10000-strong Greedy Wolf Cavalry is my baby, so I"m literally giving up my baby so you can carry out your mission. Do not disappoint me!"
"Understood!"
"Mn!"
……
It wasn"t long before a troop of 10000 wolf riders appeared before us. Chaos Moon and I exchanged a knowing smile with each other, and she said, "Hmph hmph, Hot and Sour Noodles truly is a cunning and shameless man. We never even saw the shadow of his elite cavalry until now. Still, the fact that he"s deploying them now does prove that he"s mostly a selfless person."
"Yeah. Anyway, let"s begin!"
I spurred my mount and charged forward before anyone else. My ability to breach the enemy lines exceeded the Greedy Wolf Cavalry"s absolutely, so I"ll be the first person to knock on the enemy"s doors!