Chapter 1527: Astonishing Bait

"We’re going to take them out all in one go!"

The Xuanyuan Sword trembled in my grip almost as if it could sense the enemy’s strength.

"How?" Li Chengfeng asked.

I smirked. "It’s simple. All first-rate players on the frontline are to use their Ancient Divine Skills or greatest combos to delete these 3,000 Gold Cavalrymen off the surface of the map! We will annihilate Red Maple’s plan before it ever comes to fruition!"

Whoosh whoosh!

Golden light gathered above the Xuanyuan Sword until it took the form of a gigantic golden sword. It was of course my SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skill, the Xuanyuan Slash!

The platoon of 3,000 Gold Cavalrymen instantly turned purple. There was no one in the world who didn’t recognize the Xuanyuan Slash at this point. They could hardly turn back, however. All they could do was continue their charge and pray for the best!

I turned my wrist and cut a deep gorge across the entire slope. The 500 Gold Cavalrymen who were caught by the attack instantly took 3 million damage, and that was before counting the splash damage and the 25% chance for one-shot. As a result, less than 50 players were alive at the end of the golden slash.

At the frontline, the light of Gan Jiang and Mo Ye shone beneath Lin Yixin’s feet. For 15 seconds, all of her attacks would ignore Defense, invincibility skills, and deal additional damage on top of that. He Yi also activated her own Ancient Divine Skill and annihilated a group of Gold Cavalrymen with Ice Flame Slash + Purgatory Slash combo.

Li Chengfeng was flying around to seek out the perfect angle to strike the Gold Cavalrymen. When he found it, he abruptly came to a stop and unleashed the Crimson Firmament Slash. As if on cue, High Fighting Spirits also executed his SS Rank Ancient Divine Skill, Xing Tian’s Defiance!

Beiming Xue fired her Houyi’s Wrath into the sky. The Ancient Divine Skill possessed incredible range, and when it landed the resulting shockwave struck even Red Maple and pushed him back a few meters. His face turned white with shock.

Luo River God of the Capital raised her scepter and summoned a phoenix that crashed into the incoming cavalrymen, dealing massive amounts of damage. It was her S Rank Ancient Divine Skill, Phoenix Break. Beside her, her faithful retainer, Moonkiss, waited for Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust to execute their Tiger Wing Slash and Dog God Slash so she could match them with her own Dragon Tooth Slash. Their Ancient Divine Skills was a reference to the three infamous demonic blades of ancient times, and combined the resulting power could only be described as utterly devastating.

At this point, the 3,000 Gold Cavalrymen had dwindled to less than 200. Even so, they never dropped their blades or faltered for even a moment. The leader of the group shouted, "We may be buried in horse hide, but we will never allow our enemy to breach our homes! Don’t stop, brothers and sisters! Never forget the pride and honor of the Yamato!"

When the 200 cavalrymen finally got close to our battleline, Stranger of Three Lifetimes slowly waved her scepter and said smilingly, "It’s my turn now…"

Whoosh!

A dark green–colored divine arm manifested at the tip of her scepter. She swung it horizontally and killed over half of the enemy’s troops instantly. It was the S Rank Ancient Divine Skill, Hongming Blade!

After that, Lian Xin and Beiming only needed to go through their skill rotation once to annihilate the remaining cavalrymen. Just like that, all 3,000 Gold Cavalrymen were destroyed by our SSS Rank, SS Rank and S Rank Ancient Divine Skills before they even managed to engage our units at melee. The Japanese players at the canyon entrance could hardly believe their eyes. No one expected the Chinese army’s power to be this explosive!

……

"Dammit…"

Red Maple’s sword trembled a little in his grip. Beside him, Cyan Frost asked in a cool voice, "Have you lost heart, Red Maple? Our opponent is strong, their divine players are numerous, their Ancient Divine Skills are aplenty, and worst of all, they are commanded by monstrous devils such as Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand and Legendary Brave…"

Red Maple clenched his fists tightly. "No. I will never lose heart. I know that there is no one left in our country besides me who can lead us to victory. That is why I will give it my all no matter what becomes of this war. If nothing else, I will be able to face my country and my companions with a clear conscience!"

Cyan Frost smiled. "Mn. This is the Red Maple I know! This is the man whom we can entrust our lives to!"

……

A minute later, our army started swarming the enemy from every possible direction!

The Dragonlight Cavalry had finally overcome the slopes and stood on the same ground Level as the enemy’s shield formation. We were now less than 5 meters away from the enemy!

High Fighting Spirits swung his axe and cackled. "Charge! Who says a 5-meter charge isn’t a charge?"

Everyone locked onto the enemy directly in front of them and sped up. An instant later, they were engaging the enemy’s Gold Cavalrymen at melee.

"Now! Go all out!"

I hit the players directly in front of me with a devastating Burning Blade Slash. Since I was using Martial God to buff my party’s Attack by 200%, they all took massive amounts of damage. Then, the moment 6 minutes was up, I immediately cast the Xuanyuan Art! [1]

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh…

70% of the enemy’s HP was instantly removed from their health bars. Right after that, I dropped 14 Ancient Seals in a row and killed at least a thousand Gold Cavalrymen. While unleashing Rock Crush, Chaos Moon commented happily, "Damn. What country wouldn’t shit their pants with a kickass motherfucker like Lu Chen on the opposite side of the barricade?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "Manners! This is exactly why you can’t get a boyfriend!"

After Chaos Moon cut down a couple of Japanese players whose gazes were glued to her chest like a magnet with the Dihai Blade, she replied, "Hmph! That’s because they’re not up to my standards!"

I laughed. "Oh yeah? I wish you luck on your arranged interviews[2] then!"

That hurt Chaos Moon’s feelings and caused her to stomp her foot furiously. "None of your business!"

Arranged interviews would always be the eternal agony of "ripe", "leftover" women…

……

Magic and arrows were traded incessantly between the two armies. It would be apt to describe the canyon entrance as a meat grinder as cavalrymen dropped like flies on both sides. The large majority of our ranged units including elite players such as Luo River God of the Capital, Stranger of Three Lifetimes, Lian Xin, Beiming Xue and more had to Far Shot their attacks to avoid being killed, but reduced damage was still better than no damage at all.

Of course, the biggest amount of casualties had occurred on the frontline. At least 10,000 of Gold Cavalrymen had died in just 20 short minutes. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had lost at least 5,000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen as well.

In the air, Red Maple fired off multiple sword auras while paying close attention to me, Li Chengfeng and Lin Yixin. Every time we attempted to get close to him, he would retreat and order his Dragon Punisher Archers to shoot us. While doing so, he shouted, "Gold Cavalry inside the canyon, come to the entrance and plug the holes with your flesh and blood as soon as possible! Don’t allow the enemy to take even a step into our homeland! Are the siege weapons ready yet?"

Cyan Frost looked up and answered, "They’ll be ready in three minutes!"

"Very good!" Red Maple said with a laugh.

……

He Yi and Gui Guzi were approaching the archers on the mountains on their dragons. Even Luo River God of the Capital had flown up to the sky and rained down ice and fire at them. There was nothing much the enemy archers and mages could do against a top-tier divine mage like her.

Crack!

I split apart a magic knight’s shield with the Xuanyuan Sword and cut him down. Not even looking at the equipment he dropped, I flew straight into the clouds and looked around when I was about a hundred meters above the sky. I quickly saw that at least a hundred catapults had appeared within the canyon. Red Maple knew this battle would happen, so he had ordered his players to move them over a while ago. Thank goodness they were only basic catapults—their ability to build siege weapons had greatly diminished ever since they lost their main city. Of course, the Dragon Cannons were an exception to that rule!

"Watch out! Their catapults will be coming online in 10 seconds at most…" I cried in warning.

There wasn’t much our frontliners could do except push harder though.

Li Chengfeng asked me, "Should we fly over and take out those catapults, Lu Chen?"

"Sure. All those who can fly, follow me!"

Three divine players, two dragon knights, and a couple hundred players with flying mounts immediately joined me. That was all the air force we possessed right now.

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

……

Floating amid the cold wind, I surveyed the ground again before licking my lips. "I will activate Profound Armor and descend to the ground first. I will then activate Xuanyuan Art to remove 70% of their HP—yes, the Xuanyuan Art worked on siege weapons too—after that, all you need to do is to drop your combos and run away. There is no need to sacrifice yourselves needlessly."

"Got it!"

I looked around carefully and noted that the catapults were surrounded by archers and mages. It wouldn’t be an easy attack, not to mention that it looked like they were intentionally using their catapults to bait us out.

"I’m going!"

I canceled my Flight ability and started falling toward the ground. Then, I activated it again and shot toward the ground like a rocket. Before I hit the ground, I activated the Death skill of Xuanyuan Art and cast a ton of Ancient Seals across the entire catapult legion!

The catapults had pretty high HP. Even with powerful skills, they still had around 20% or so HP. At the same time, the enemy archers and mages raised their weapons and shouted, "Here they come! Blast them all to pieces!"

……

The arrows and spells began flying our way. It wasn’t long before a dozen or so players were stunned in midair. Only those with better stats managed to avoid being stunned.

Luo River God of the Capital shouted, "I’ll freeze the enemy! I leave destroying the siege weapons to the rest of you!"

Buzz!

She abruptly opened her palm and caused some sort of invisible ice energy to spread across the land. Every enemy within a hundred yards of her was frozen instantly.

"Damn, that’s amazing…" Li Chengfeng hid his surprise while attacking the siege weapons.

I fired Burning Blade Slash that tore five catapults to pieces in an instant. Then, I dropped another dozen or so Ancient Seals that destroyed both catapults and players.

The sound of falling snow abruptly ceased. It was Luo River God of the Capital’s freezing spell coming to an end. Without hesitation, I cast Cold of the Nine Provinces and froze the enemy players again!

"Don’t conserve your Divine Energy Points! Use your Ancient Divine Skills!" He Yi shouted.

Catapults collapsed everywhere as golden lights flashed.

……

Wh… what’s that thing?"

Suddenly, Gui Guzi noticed something and pointed at a certain direction.

I glanced and nearly shat my pants there and then. It was because a completed Dragon Cannon was aimed straight at us! I didn’t even know when it was set up! At this point, I was starting to realize that Red Maple’s true goal was to wipe out our divine players [3]!

……

"Dodge now!" I shouted without hesitation.

Lin Yixin and Li Chengfeng reacted with godlike speed, kicking off the ground and flying to safety right away. Unfortunately, Luo River God of the Capital, Gui Guzi and He Yi were much slower than they were. It was too late!

Swhoosh!

The Dragon Cannon trembled for a moment before unleashing a fireball. It was huge and moving way faster than a standard fireball!

1. T/N: you guys remember the part where he said he’s using Xuanyuan Art as little as possible so as not to draw too much attention? It’s valid, but in real life I don’t think anyone’s stupid enough not to challenge him over it. Like seriously, Lu Chen was attacked over many things, but he was never attacked for the Xuanyuan Sword even once. Dude should’ve been ambushed by both allies and enemies alike since the moment he used the Xuanyuan Art ☜

2. T/N: kinda like blind dates but more formal, usually the parents/relatives are the one who set it up ☜

3. T/N: except it still doesn’t matter because you have Resurrection Art and Immortality. Even if everyone dies you can still keep fighting until everything’s dead around you. Why is your skill still legal btw? ☜