Chapter 1004: Step by Step

Translator: alyschu

Swhoosh!

I teleported to Sky City, and I wasn’t the only one. Countless Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players flashed in droves, and they all looked excited at the prospect of a new war.

While I still had some time, I ran to my shop and unloaded all the equipment I had picked up from the battlefield. White Fox smiled at me and asked, "Wow, that’s a handsome pile of loot, master. Who did you rob this time?"

I stared at her. "Oh my god, is that what you’ve been thinking of me all this time? A bandit?"

White Fox covered her mouth and giggled. "Well, the older sister in the clothes shop next door said that you’re a hero of Sky City and one of the bravest adventurers in the world. I don’t know if that’s true, but I suppose there’s no harm in believing it since everyone’s saying the same thing..."

"Right. Watch over the shop and wait until I come back, okay?"

"Yes, master. Goodbye, master..." White Fox bent down a little and revealed the impressive cleavage between her collars.

Me: "..."

I felt like I should say something, but gave up in the end. It wasn’t like having an indecent-looking female shop clerk was a bad thing. White Fox was certainly one of the reasons why my shop outperformed all the other player shops in the city.

......

I moved to the eastern square after I was done resting and reorganizing. The open ground was positively flooded by high-level Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players. I saw Xu Yang, Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Du Thirteen and even Beiming Xue and Lian Xin. Beiming had a mount, and she could bring Lian Xin with her without losing any speed. That was how they kept up with our cavalry and returned at the same time. While she could technically ferry another person home that wasn’t Lian Xin, why would she? Lian Xin was a magus-level mage whose magical prowess was among the best in the entire world. It made perfect sense to have a rider carry her at all times.

On a random note, Lian Xin and Beiming Xue became as close as real sisters ever since the former had returned from overseas. To our guild members, they were a pair of eye-soothing flowers who improved the mood just by being around.

"Big bro, you’re here!" Beiming spotted me immediately when she turned around.

I shot everyone a smile before apologizing, "Sorry for not being around for the war at Black Coast!"

Li Chengfeng smiled back. "The battle at White Rose Fortress was even harder. We apologize for not being there for you as well. Cyan Earth City and Elephant City just have way too many troops!"

I nodded before asking, "Chengfeng, did God of War and Breeze and Rain join the Battle of Black Coast?"

The dragon warrior shook his head. "That’s one of the strange points of this war. They or Cyan Beast never showed up from the start until the end."

"I knew it..."

I said with a frown, "The fact that both God of War and Breeze and Rain are lying low could only mean that Cyan Earth City is saving them for some other objective. Tsk tsk, what on earth are they planning?"

"I don’t know..." Li Chengfeng was just as clueless as I was.

In the end, I gritted my teeth and decided, "Let’s forget about them for now and focus on wiping out God’s Domain from Floating Ice City first. Red Maple and his goons desperately need to fuck off from China’s domain!"

"Yeah!"

......

After everyone had arrived, we counted over 14000 Dragonlight Cavalry, 5000 Dragonlight Archers, and 50k cavalrymen with lesser mounts who were still plenty powerful. They were all waiting at the east side of Sky City. One of our guild mottos was to recruit elites only, and the law was obeyed by both the main guild and the subguilds. As a result, our players still couldn’t 1v10 the enemy, but 1v3? That was well within their capabilities.

I felt my heart pumping with passion and excitement as I stood before the seventy thousand strong elite cavalrymen. Raising my sword high up into the air, I declared, "The wolves of Purple Grape City had invaded Floating Ice City and turned it into a ruin. They had murdered countless innocents and drenched the trees of Frost Forest with blood. They even humiliated Twelve Musicians, a female guild of several tens of thousands, killed them again and again and brought many of them to Level 0. We can lose a main city, but can swallow the humiliation against our brethren and defenseless women? No! Do you have courage in your veins? If you do, then ride with me, brothers and sisters! Let us wipe out God’s Domain together!"

Everyone raised their weapons and chanted, "Wipe out God’s Domain!"

"Let’s go!"

I shouted before spurring my mount and leading the way. Not long after we set off though, we encountered a group of elite cavalry in the woods. They were Snowy Cathaya.

I hurriedly met up with them and asked, "Hello! Where’s Lin Yixin?"

A player answered me, "The guild’s at the front of the group. Er, that’s about five hundred meters from here."

"Oh..."

It was impossible to spot Lin Yixin with so many people around, so I sent her a message directly: "Beauty Lin!"

Lin Yixin replied with a smiley face, "Little Cheat!"

"Come on, don’t you have a better nickname for me..." I complained a bit before asking, "Anyway, is Snowy Cathaya about to tackle God’s Domain?"

"Yep."

"Let’s advance together then. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls will approach the enemy from the north side of Frost Forest, and Snowy Cathaya from Moonlight Forest. No matter how strong God’s Domain is, they’ll be hard-pressed to fight off a pincer attack."

"Sure! Be careful, okay?"

"I will."

After that, I contacted The Monarch Descends’ guild leader, Ling Xueshang—

"Xueshang?"

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Have you guys arrived yet?"

"Yeah, we’re waiting outside Moonlight Forest right now. In fact, we saw the enemy chasing down Candle Dragon just a moment ago. You came sooner than we expected, and that’s good. Everyone needs that boost of confidence right now, especially after that shitshow Candlelight Shadow pulled. The man is just too prideful, you know? If he hadn’t underestimated Red Maple, there’s no way we would’ve suffered the ambush. Our forces were 2.5 times bigger than the enemy at the time, hmph!"

I sighed. "It’s not entirely Candlelight Shadow’s fault, honestly. When I fought Red Maple for the first time, I nearly fell for his tricks myself. Anyway, just be careful. You should contact Lin Yixin and meet up with Snowy Cathaya. Don’t give God’s Domain the chance to divide and conquer us."

"Mn, understood."

Thankfully, our allies were all pretty reliable. There should be no way for Red Maple to defeat Snowy Cathaya and The Monarch Descends combined.

......

Twenty minutes after we began our journey, we passed through the border between Sky City and Floating Ice City. We saw a large group of Chinese players on the plains, and among them were Warsky Alliance, Gods of Destruction, Mad Dragon, Flower Room, Pop Culture, Sword Lord of Jianghu and more.

Warsky was standing outside the forest and swearing at the direction where God’s Domain at, "That fucking good-for-nothing Candlelight Shadow! How did he lose when he outnumbered God’s Domain? Fucking trash noobs, every last one of them! Our brothers and sisters were being slaughtered in Frost Forest for so long, and this is how you repay them? Fucking trash!"

I rode up to him and called out, "Warsky!"

A furious-looking Warsky turned to face me. "Ah, Lu Chen. You’re finally here!"

I replied, "Yeah. But you need to calm down, or Red Maple might be able to exploit your anger. Hate him if you want, but that man is not an easy foe to defeat!"

"Hmph!" Warsky snorted angrily, but fell quiet after that.

A petite girl chose this moment to step out of the crowd. She was none other than the guild leader of Soul Battle Robes, Song of Cloud and Water. Speaking of which, it looked like Soul Battle Robes and Warsky Alliance had formed a close alliance. Their guild members seemed really friendly with one another. Song of Cloud and Water even addressed Warsky affectionately, "Big brother Warsky, can we begin the strategy meeting now that Ancient Sword is here? We’ve been waiting for too long. It’s time to give the Purple Grapes a taste of their own medicine."

Warsky nodded. "Mn, I know."

Standing behind Song of Cloud and Water was Song of Ice and Fire. The blade wielder said grumpily, "‘I know’? We need better assurances than that. You’d better not lead us to a defeat after taking our guild leader as your step-sister!"

Warsky lifted his head proudly. "Don’t worry. We won’t suffer the same defeat as Candle Dragon! Not when October Rain is still our strategist!"

"That better be the case!"

Song of Ice and Fire was obviously hostile toward Warsky. In fact, God Bone, Ringwraith and the rest of Soul Battle Robes’ top players looked equally disgruntled. After all, Soul Battle Robes was currently acting like a subguild of Warsky Alliance instead of their own person. This was not what Song of Ice and Fire had signed up for when he rejoined Soul Battle Robes.

I frowned a bit as I asked, "If you don’t mind, what is your plan to battle God’s Domain?"

Warsky replied with a smile, "Slow and steady wins the race. We’ll slowly push our way into Frost Forest while maintaining formation. We’ll have our frontliners proceed with their shields up, the mages, archers and priests behind them, and the ballistae at the last. Frost Forest is a small place, so there’s no chance they can slip behind us. According to the Nation War interface, there are only 2.98 million Japanese players left in Floating Ice City’s domain, while we have over 10 million players. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to wipe them out."

Laughing At The Heavens and Farewell Song immediately echoed in agreement, "The guild leader is wise."

However, I asked him, "What if Red Maple burns the forest? The northern wind is blowing pretty hard today. If a fire spreads, your siege weapons are only going to slow your retreat. Even if your people manage to avoid burning to death, the stampede alone would’ve killed plenty by then."

"Fuck!"

It appeared that Warsky hadn’t anticipated this at all. A long stunned silence later, he asked, "In that case, what do you think we should do, Lu Chen?"

I replied, "Leave your ranged players outside the forest and have them be ready to kill any enemy who charges into the open. At the same time, send only your best cavalry troops into the forest. This way, your people can outrun the fire even if Red Maple chooses to burn the forest. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls will advance toward God’s Domain from the left, and Warsky Alliance and Soul Battle Robes from the right. If you discover the enemy’s main force, kill them without mercy."

Farewell Song said, "Did you forget that Red Maple managed to defeat Candle Dragon’s Viper Dragoons despite being at a 1:2.5 ratio disadvantage? Going at them with just cavalry doesn’t sound like the best idea."

I smiled. "In that case, I would like you to enter the forest with your assassins. Your job will be to scout out the location of the enemy’s main force. I give you my word that my 10000-strong Dragonlight Cavalry won’t stop pursuing Red Maple’s Wildfire Riders until they’re all dead!"

The corner of Warsky’s mouth twitched, but he said, "Do as he says, Farewell Song!"

"Yes, guild leader!"

This was what differentiated Warsky from most leaders. He wouldn’t stubbornly stick to a strategy if someone suggested something better. He wouldn’t mind suffering a blow to his pride if it could maximize his advantage.

After the discussion was over, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ cavalry moved toward the left side of the forest, while Warsky, Laughing At The Heavens, Lin Bing Dou Zhe, Song of Ice and Fire, Song of Cloud and Water and more moved into the right side of the forest.

Frost Forest had lost its tranquility a long time ago. The game world hadn’t been refreshed yet, so there were clear traces of battle all over the place. Countless bodies belonging to Chinese or Purple Grape City littered the floor, but it was obvious that there were more dead Viper Dragoons than there were dead enemies. There were thousands of bodies at the edge of the forest alone, and the tang of blood was thick and discomforting.

I clenched my fists and uttered through gritted teeth, "Candlelight Shadow, when will you grow up? How many more must die before you let go of your pride?"