Chapter 1572: Kiss Me Now

Crack!

A magic knight was sliced in half as a sword cut through both his shield and his armor. The critical damage number of 6 million stunned all those who were close enough to witness it. The three vortices of death on the blade began spinning, and the next moment all Korean players within 1,000 yards of me lost 70% of their HP. Many of them didn’t survive the experience.

As my contribution points skyrocketed, I fired Thousand Ice Slash at a group of archers and froze them all. Lian Xin then dealt the last hit by dropping Dimensional Storm in the middle of them. Now that she had the Scepter of Divine Flame, her basic attacks’ damage was over 2 million. Add the Soul Shocker Bell into the mix, and only a handful of players received less than 5 million damage from her. It was why every Burning City plate who caught sight of her acted like the devil himself was upon them. To put it simply, a top-tier mage was both unkillable and unbeatable.

……

It took a couple of Xuanyuan Arts and Thousand Ghost Descents, but the ground before the southern gate of Burning City quickly turned into a sea of blood. Nearly three hundred thousand of the one million troops Tear Stain had mobilized were dead in less than an hour. Even Tear Stain had withdrawn to the city and stayed there because Beiming Xue was marking her with the Xuanming Bow almost all the time. The woman looked like she might die of stress, but there was nothing she could do about it. After all, she knew that our divine players would swarm her if she was stunned even once. Tear Stain neither had the courage nor the leeway to make such a gamble.

Bang bang bang…

The walls of Burning City continued to shudder under the bombardment of our White Marsh Catapults. Worse still, most of the catapults, ballistae and other siege weapons Tear Stain had attempted to use to counter our siege had been sniped by the Chiyou Plume.

For a time, a frowning Tear Stain could only sit atop an embrasure and stare blankly at me. The urge to cry suddenly threatened her eye ducts.

"Jiejie…"

Suddenly, a troop of flying riders flew over her head. Tear Stain looked up and broke into a smile of relief. "Hmph. Is the royal army of the Burning Empire finally going to make a move?"

Tear Stain rose to her feet, unsheathed her sword and declared, "Burning City players, the NPCs’ Griffin Legion has made their move! Now is the time to launch our counterattack! Reform the cavalry troops and make a beeline for their siege weapons! The first thing we’re going to take out are those disgusting super long-range siege weapons!!"

The gates opened, and a huge number of NPC cavalrymen rode out to meet us. They were Level 335 fiend-rank soldiers, and they were supported by countless griffin riders. This siege was starting to look a bit dicey.

Thud!

I abruptly rose into the air and remained at a certain height. I said in a quiet voice, "The griffin riders are flying units, and they add a whole new dimension to this battle. Thankfully, my Xuanyuan Art affects all units within a 1,000-yard-radius sphere. I’m going to activate Profound Armor and attract the griffin riders’ attention. Once they are close enough, I’m going to delete their HP with the Xuanyuan Art. I want Little Gui to use your Thousand Ghosts Descent after that, and Beiming and Lian Xin to cooperate with me as well. The griffin riders only have 10 million max HP, so let’s try not to involve our normal players and destroy this air force ourselves!"

Everyone nodded in unison. "Okay!"

I shot a glance at the super beauty flying next to He Yi and shot her a smirk. "Make sure to keep me fed, okay, sis?"

Murong Mingyue shook her waist a little before replying in a lazy tone, "Hmm? Sure. I don’t have the heart to leave my little brother for dead, or do I?"

I replied, "Good. Let’s go!"

……

I gave my legs a push and shot straight toward the horde of griffin riders. I counted about 10,000 of them. Before I even got close to them, I cast a dozen or so Ancient Seals to catch their attention. After that, their Thunder Spears nipped at my heels like relentless hounds as I weaved in and out of their ranks in an S-shaped pattern. Despite Profound Armor and dodging countless Thunder Spears, I still lost almost ten million HP all too quickly. The excitement was almost too much to bear!

It wasn’t long before I was met by a literal wall of griffins. I abruptly skidded to a stop and cast Xuanyuan Art!

The shock wave of death spread out, and countless griffin riders lost 70% of their HP at the same time. They weren’t boss NPCs, so they weren’t immune to the effects of the Xuanyuan Art. That being said, it wasn’t without its price. During the second I took to cast the Xuanyuan Art, I was immediately struck by a barrage of unnaturally accurate Thunder Spears!

Thud thud thud…

My HP plummeted past the 5 million mark in just the blink of an eye. I hurriedly shouted, "Sis, kiss me now!"

Murong Mingyue giggled as she cast her Kiss of the Goddess of Life. A ray of green light surrounded me and triggered a never-before-seen and most exciting healing number—

+23,166,729!

The instant my HP returned to full, I unleashed Burning Blade Slash that tore an entire swathe of griffin riders to shreds. On a related note, killing NPCs gave Nation War contribution points too. Woohoo!

As if on cue, Gui Guzi’s Thousand Ghosts Descent and Li Chengfeng’s Crimson Firmament Slash appeared at the same time and cleared out another group of NPCs as well. As for Lian Xin and Beiming Xue, they boldly dove into a group of griffin riders and fired their AoE skills everywhere. Practically every attack they dished out dealt at least 5 million damage, so only a handful of griffin riders were able to endure more than one hit from them. In short, they were tearing the flying riders into pieces without any pressure whatsoever.

It took less than ten minutes for us to slaughter the 20k griffin riders to the last. While this was going on, Burning City’s royal knights, Tear Stain and the Korean players were clashing against the Dragonlight Cavalry. Although most of us top players weren’t available to help them at the time, the Chinese army still held the advantage. While our frontliners were holding the line, our Holy Mages and Dragonlight Archers were able to blast away at the enemy with near impunity. It didn’t matter how many Korean players joined the battle. They were all going to die one way or another!

The battle lasted two hours. We paid the price of several hundred thousand players, but we were able to repel Tear Stain’s second counterattack. Not only that, the Nation War interface showed only 1.4 million or so Burning City players left on the map, meaning that we had killed over half of their numbers in just over three hours. It was the only move Tear Stain could’ve made, however. If she had chosen to stay her hand, the walls of her main city would’ve gone down already.

……

Tear Stain was covered in blood from head to toe when she appeared on the edge of the wall once more. She stared at the sea of Chinese players on the ground, gripped her bloodstained blade tightly and shuddered like a leaf. "Uu… Why did it turn out like this…"

Beside her, a Throne of the Wild corps commander advised, "Guild leader, we can’t last any longer than this. How about we ask Hero Alliance for help? Vienna’s Sorrow still has 2 million elites at least, and… all we need to do is to bow our heads to guarantee his cooperation. When he arrives, we’ll catch the enemy in a pincer attack and…"

However, Tear Stain shook her head before replying, "No, it’s probably too late already. Lu Chen is number one player not just in China, but the entire world. There is no one who has greater rallying power at him. Just look. We’ve been fighting for over three hours, and pockets of Chinese players are still streaming in from the Center. Their numbers have actually swelled to almost 7 million after the battle, but there are only so many of us. Even if our numbers were equal to theirs, their siege weapons still outnumber ours too. It’s just too much. We can’t even charge through their defense line and destroy those siege weapons. The end is nigh…"

Tear Stain sniffed and actually broke into tears. "I have let down the Korean server and everyone’s hopes and expectations. I’ve always thought that I could hold the line just like Candlelight Shadow, that I was just as excellent as he was, but… Candlelight Shadow at least died a worthy death on the battlefield, while I was hunted by Lu Chen all the way to my homeland…"

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

She turned to look at her corps commander with blurry eyes. "I feel like I’m the biggest failure in the world. I…"

The corps commander trembled. "Guild leader, you can’t… you can’t collapse here. If even you give up all hope, Burning City will truly be beyond salvation. There has to be another way… there has to be…"

Tear Stain looked at the sky but didn’t believe that there was any hope left.

……

Meanwhile, the executive-level players of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls were resting beside the Chiyou Plume after taking out all the Korean players on the ground.

Song of Cloud and Water was wiping the bloodstain on her blade when she said, "This is the most contribution points I have ever earned from a Nation War. Thank goodness I chose to join big brother Lu Chen’s guild, or we would’ve been guild-wiped by now…"

I teased her, "Who was the one who begged me to join Soul Battle Robes again?"

Song of Ice and Fire sighed. "Soul Battle Robes is not a bad guild, you know? We just lack a spiritual leader to rally behind. I don’t count, and the big miss is too young to hold any real authority over these bastards. Perhaps we could’ve grown to be your equal if Brother Seven was still around, but I doubt that even he’s a match for you. You have already grown too powerful…"

Chaos Moon chuckled. "That’s normal. Even Shusheng thinks Lu Chen is scary… Assuming that everyone restarts from zero, I doubt even Seven-Star Lamp would have a 20% chance of beating Lu Chen… Assuming that he hasn’t improved, his technique is just around my level…"

Song of Ice and Fire grimaced. "We’re all one big family now, so please don’t dishonor our former guild leader. I might be tempted to fight you to the death otherwise… God Bone certainly would’ve hit you with his spear if he wasn’t dead already…"

Chaos Moon puffed up her wholesome chest and sneered, "Ceh! You think his short spear can satisfy me? I prefer Lu Chen’s weapon, the Xuanyuan Sword, more…"

I glanced at my sword for a second before looking up at her. "Mine is even shorter though?"

"..." Chaos Moon wore a betrayed look on her face.

The siege weapons continued to bombard the walls throughout our conversation. We weren’t in any real hurry since we had the entire city surrounded, and Chinese players were still streaming in from all places. Right now, all we needed to do was to wait for Tear Stain to lose her patience and make a third counterattack, or wait for the walls to fall. One way or another, we would have a direct line into the main city afterward.

……

I brought up the Nation War contribution ranking. It was drastically different from what it was before, especially because of the outstanding battle at Swallow Ear Canton. Lin Yixin, Flowing Cloud and some other players were way higher on the ranking as a result—

1. Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand (China) Points: 12,528,800

2. Wind Fantasy (China) Points: 10,298,830

3. Lian Xing (China) Points: 9,876,650

4. Beiming Xue (China) Points: 8,977,180

5. Flowing Cloud (India) Points: 6,415,890

6. Legendary Brave (China) Points: 5,041,880

7. Tear Stain (Korea) Points: 4,992,770

8. Candlelight Shadow (China) Points: 4,614,950

9. From Water (China) Points: 4,519,890

10. Breeze and Rain (India) Points: 4,294,440

……

"Got damn, everyone’s points are so high…" I was overjoyed.