Swhoos.h.!.+
After I appeared in Vanished G.o.d City, I contacted Gui Guzi again and joined his party. Li Chengfeng and High Fighting Spirits were with him, and they were currently in a forest to the south of Vanished G.o.d City. They were only three hours away from Blazing Hot Lips" territory now, and logically speaking, nothing should happen until then.
I exited the city and rode along the edges of the forest with the Phantom Wolf King. I was able to catch up with the escort party in less than ten minutes. It was because I was wearing the Divine Martial War Boots—which boosted my movement speed by 250%—and riding the Armored Ice Qilin Horse. In short, I was moving 5 times faster than normal!
I saw a long line of supply carts of varying sizes at the distance. They had departed from Dark Moon City. The flag of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was flying above every cart, and the wheels looked like they were bending under the sheer weight of ores they were carrying. Warhorses neighed from time to time as they dragged the carts across the wet ground.
The supply carts were surrounded by a ton of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls troops. The one thousand Dragonlight Cavalrymen I ordered to protect them were already standing by.
Gui Guzi welcomed me warmly as I rode up to them. "Boss Broken Halberd, you should"ve just left this to me and Li. You didn"t need to do this yourself!"
"It"s fine. I"m just here to take a look, and better safe than sorry, you know?"
Li Chengfeng also came over and asked me with a smile, "Lu Chen, I heard you went to speak with Stranger of Three Lifetimes earlier today? You must"ve made a deal with her, or there"s no way you would send her several million resource units, right? You"ve never even sent Beauty Lin, your girlfriend, this many resources before, hahaha!"
I grinned. "You know me too well. Yes, that"s correct. I"ve made a deal with Stranger of Three Lifetimes."
"It"s the mages, isn"t it?" Li Chengfeng said with a meaningful smile.
High Fighting Spirits raised his warhammer as he chimed in, "Oh, I heard about that! Blazing Hot Lips sent us 1000 high-level mages temporarily to help us build up our mage party, right? It"s already posted in the forums. Even half a month"s time should be enough to help significantly bolster our numbers!"
Xu Yang agreed. "Yeah, this should be the last piece we need to set up our mage party. It"s not like Lian Xin can"t do it—she"s been doing recruitment drives at the plaza of Sky City since this morning—but it"s too slow, and it stresses her out too much."
Gui Guzi complained, "Still, we paid 2 days" worth of production for just half a month"s worth of employment. I feel like it"s a bit too much…"
Li Chengfeng"s smile suddenly grew wider. "Little Gui, Fighting Spirits, Xu Yang, it looks like the three of you still don"t understand Lu Chen quite well!"
"What do you mean?" Gui Guzi asked in puzzlement.
Li Chengfeng looked at me before explaining, "Have you ever seen Lu Chen being on the losing end of a business deal? On purpose no less? No, I"m sure he has something in mind. For example… He has no plans to return the 1000 mages Blazing Hot Lips lent us."
Gui Guzi exclaimed in shock, "Holy f.u.c.k! Really? If that"s true, then…"
I smiled. "I"ll tell you guys all about it later. For now, let"s focus on delivering these resources safely into Blazing Hot Lips" territory."
"Yeah!"
……
I opened the world map and stared at it for a moment. Suddenly, I frowned a little and asked, "Little Gui, Chengfeng, who"s the one who picked this route?"
"The NPCs picked it themselves. What"s wrong?" Li Chengfeng asked.
I pointed at a spot to the southeast and said, "Hall of Immortality"s territory is less than half an hour"s journey away from this spot, and they desperately need resources to upgrade their Rank 6 territory. If I"m not mistaken, Hall of Immortality might attempt to rob us here. You all know how greedy that Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch is."
"It"s fine!" Li Chengfeng said in an unconcerned manner, "We have 1000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen and 10000 Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen. I doubt Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch has the guts to act on his greed!"
"That"s not necessarily true. An ambitious villain loves to take risk, and Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch definitely fits the bill. Well, we"ll see what happens in a moment. For now, I want a troop of Cyan Tiger Cavalry to patrol the southeast side and stand by."
"Okay!"
……
As it turned out, my prediction was spot on. Not long after the discussion, Eighteen Steads of You and Yun reported, "f.u.c.k, Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch is here! He"s brought tens of thousands of troops with him!"
At the same time, the sound of thundering hooves appeared from the open plains in front of us. It was the Ghost Riders of Hall of Immortality, and I counted around twenty thousand of them. They were far inferior to the Dragonlight Cavalry and Cyan Tiger Cavalry, but what they lacked in quality they made up for in numbers. If a fight actually broke out, we might not be able to get away unscathed.
I gazed to the horizon and noted that Hall of Immortality players were still running out of the distant forests. They were all mages and archers. If I allowed them to get close, then our supply carts would truly be in danger.
Chiang!
So I pulled out the Purple Ying Sword and pointed to the southeast direction. I ordered, "Chengfeng, stay here and guard the supply carts. Gui Guzi, High Fighting Spirits, Xu Yang, bring your men and come with me to meet Hall of Immortality! No way in h.e.l.l we"re surrendering these resources to them!"
Li Chengfeng nodded and said, "Be careful!"
Not long after I and around 2000 cavalry departed, we came face to face with the Ghost Riders of Hall of Immortality. We glared at each other, but didn"t make any rash moves.
……
"Gulp!"
Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch"s eyes burned with greed as he stared at our supply carts. However, he was reminded of the risks when Gui Guzi, High Fighting Spirits and I rode up to meet him.
"Long time no see, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand!" he greeted us first.
I smiled at him, lowered my new sword and trod forward until there was only ten yards between me and him. Then, I began, "Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch, your eyes aren"t deceiving you. The 4 million resources Dark Moon City is delivering to Red Lips Nation is right behind me. You can try to take them, but don"t come crying to me in soul form after you die, okay? 10000 Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen, 1000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen, two Divine Generals and a dozen or so Famous Generals. Come at us if you dare!"
Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch chose to endure despite my aggressive taunt. He smiled and said placatingly, "You worry too much. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is the best or second best guild in Sky City, and we are the same in Vanished G.o.d City. Why should we interfere with each other"s business? I"m here only because I"m curious about the supply carts, and because this is our territory you"re pa.s.sing through. I do have an obligation to protect my territory just in case you suddenly decide to invade us, you know?"
I simply smiled and said nothing.
Gui Guzi whispered beside my ears, "Boss Broken Halberd, this coward"s clearly delaying us!"
"It"s fine. I need some time myself…"
I smiled and sent a quick message to Stranger of Three Lifetimes. "Third Wheel, your 4 million resources are at coordinates (17327, 0929) right now, but Hall of Immortality is trying to rob us. I didn"t bring too many people, so send your Silver Leopard Cavalry over as soon as possible, will you? The more the better!"
She replied immediately, "Got it. Eyes is heading out right now, and I"ll be there shortly with the second army. There"s around 100000 of us, so just hang on. Those G.o.dd.a.m.ned idiots from Hall of Immortality. Just you wait, one of these days I"m going to take their territory!"
……
The stand-off continued as I stood at the forefront of the party. Purple energies were spinning around the translucent blade of the Purple Ying Sword, and it didn"t take a genius to figure out that it was no ordinary weapon. Hall of Immortality"s players seemed unsure if they should attack now or keep waiting.
"What do we do, boss?" a rider asked Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch.
The guild leader narrowed his eyes and replied, "They only have ten thousand men, but they"re all elites, so we wait… ten more minutes, and our mages and archers should total around ten thousand. That will be the moment we attack!"
"But why don"t we just attack now? Our cavalry alone is three times bigger than theirs!" the rider continued asking.
Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch"s gaze sharpened, and he rebuked the rider, "Are you questioning my judgment? Listen here, you fool. Ancient Sword"s cavalry—especially the Dragonlight Cavalry—could go toe-to-toe with even the strongest cavalry of the Northern Alliance. To say that they are terrifying is an understatement. The only way to ensure our victory here is to outnumber the Dragonlight Cavalry at least ten times. Only then can we be sure that the raid will end in success!"
The rider was stunned, but he had to admit that Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch was right.
……
A short while later, Hall of Immortality"s mages, priests, archers and tacticians finally met up with their cavalry.
This meant that Hall of Immortality was about to launch their a.s.sault!
Swhoos.h.!.+
I immediately dropped an Ancient Seal at the ground in front of me, causing an explosion of gra.s.s and soil.
"Ah?!"
Several Ghost Riders withdrew from the scene, but Gui Guzi burst out in laughter and taunted them, "Seriously? You guys should"ve stuck to PvE. PvP isn"t for the likes of cowards, understand? Pooh!"
The Ghost Riders turned red with shame.
Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch raised his weapon furiously and shouted, "Hall of Immortality, are you just going to let your brother be humiliated for free? Weapons out! Take their supply carts and show them who"s boss! Kill them!"
……
Hooves thundered across the ground. The battle was about to begin!
However, right before our two armies were going to clash, a new force emerged swiftly from a nearby forest. They were the elite Silver Leopard Cavalry, and their leader was none other than the vie guild leader of Blazing Hot Lips, Eyes Like Water!
"You"re late!" I chided her.
Eyes Like Water giggled. "C"mon, we rode non-stop the moment we heard the news…"
……
"Halt!"
Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch abruptly paused in his tracks and faced toward his players. He declared, "It"s unfortunate that there will be no victory for us today, but a wise man knows when to advance and withdraw. Retreat!"
Just like that, Hall of Immortality left almost as quickly as they came.
We didn"t give chase of course. We continued to escort the supply carts toward Red Lips Nation.
……
Nothing else happened after that. We reached Red Lips Nation safely and completed the transaction. Just as I was about to teleport back to the city though, I suddenly received a message from my team manager, Rose. It had been a while since I heard from her. "Lu Chen, you there? I just want to give you a heads-up and tell you that a great online plus offline tournament is coming in the near future. You know what it is. It used to be called WSL in Spirit of Grief, but now it"s called the WEL. It"s the most elite, global-scale tournament there is in Heavenblessed right now. You, Beiming Xue, From Water and Murong Mingyue will be partic.i.p.ating as our main roster, and we"ve also decided to sign Lian Xin at the price of 11 million RMB. The board of directors look forward to your performance, hehe~~"