Chapter 1576: Predicting The Future

I selected the Conquer option without hesitation. We absolutely lacked the strength to defend this city, so this was the only option that made sense!

A few seconds later, a system announcement resounded in the air—

Ding!

System Announcement: Player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand" (China) killed the Cyan Earth City regent Stuttgart VII and chose the Conquer option after obtaining the royal scepter. If no other force claims the royal scepter before the end of the Nation War, Cyan Earth City will become the vassal state of Sky City. For 90 days, Cyan Earth City’s players will not be able to attack any city of the China server. Moreover, 40% of Cyan Earth City’s daily gold income will be given to the China server!

……

"Woohoo! As expected, Conquer is the royal road!" Li Chengfeng laughed.

I gave Xu Yang the royal scepter and said, "Alright, the NPCs of this city are yours to command now, brother. I will also be leaving behind a couple thousand troops just in case. In the meantime, the rest of us will return to Burning City!"

Xu Yang nodded with a chuckle. "Sure! Hehe, I love missions like this!"

I smiled. "Me too, man…"

However, our elated feelings were short-lived. Behind me, Chaos Moon said suddenly, "We have an emergency, Lu Chen! Frostsword City’s 5 million troops are just 5 minutes away from Cyan Earth City! Their intentions are unclear!"

"What the fuck?"

I felt like someone had taken a hammer to my heart. Frostsword City had appeared even faster than I had anticipated. What are they plotting?

I immediately left the royal palace with Li Chengfeng, He Yi, Lian Xin, Beiming Xue and more Ancient Sword experts. By the time we exited the gate, the plains were already full of Russian players. Several million White Horse players from Frostsword City were spread out in battle formations, and their guild leader, A Snowy Night Below 30 Degrees, was watching us from a distance.

"I don’t think they’ve come here to congratulate us…" Li Chengfeng grimaced.

I nodded in agreement before saying quietly, "Tell everyone to prepare for combat. If necessary, we’ll defend Cyan Earth City to the death!"

He Yi abruptly unsheathed the Suppressing Fire Sword. An entire swathe of Dragonlight Cavalrymen unsheathed their weapons as well. Although our numbers were far inferior to the enemy’s, our morale was as high as it could be. Moreover, we were now in control of the city’s millions of NPC troops. Assuming we fought well, we might even be able to defeat them in battle. If nothing else, we had enough strength to keep Snowy Night from choosing to attack us immediately.

……

Li Chengfeng pressed a hand on my shoulder and gave me a push. "What are you waiting for? Go negotiate with them already…"

"Fuck you!"

That was what I said, but I rose into the air and stopped about 10 meters away from Snowy Night. Even as I sheathed my sword as a show of friendship, I could see that a lot of White Horse archers were a hair trigger from firing their arrows at me, and their cavalrymen were ready to Charge at a moment’s notice. Tsk tsk, they definitely weren’t here to congratulate us!

"What is this?"

I shot Snowy Night a smile and started casually. "The Russian server and the China server have been allies for several games straight, haven’t we? So what is this? It almost looks like you’re planning to stab us in the back. You are a veteran yourself, Snowy Night. Surely you understand the situation better than the younger players of your server?"

Snowy Night smiled politely. "Of course I do. You are our friend, and the China server is our ally. That is why we’ve crossed half the continent and taken out all the obstacles along the way just to meet up with you. You understand our goodwill, don’t you?"

I pointed at her players. "I will, if you explain why your players are drawing their weapons at me."

"Please don’t misunderstand, they’re not targeting you!" Snowy Night looked at the main city behind me and said, "It’s because we have a score to settle with Cyan Earth City, and our enemy is right in front of us. With that said, can you please move aside so we may… finish things?"

"Move aside?" I chuckled. "I’m afraid that you’re already too late. Cyan Earth City is now our vassal state, the NPCs are under our command, and about a million brothers and sisters are guarding the city behind me. Go home, Snowy Night. You get Elephant City, and we get Cyan Earth City. It’s a fair trade, isn’t it?"

It was at this moment a Russian axe wielder behind Snowy Night stepped forward with an arrogant smirk on his face. "What if we decide not to give you face, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand? What if we insist on killing our way into Cyan Earth City and taking it for ourselves? What can you possibly do against us?!"

I abruptly unsheathed the Xuanyuan Sword and pointed my blade straight at him. "Do it then. Step over me and my people’s corpses and get the Cyan Earth City you so desire. Of course, whether you have the ability to do so is an entirely different story. Cyan Earth City, Elephant City, Hero City, Burning City. We are the ones who took out all of their main forces. We don’t blame you for taking Elephant City, but you dare to set your sights on Cyan Earth City as well? Are you so foolish that you don’t understand the consequences of insatiable greed?!"

He raised his axe at me. "Oh? Is that a declaration of war I hear?"

I gritted my teeth and raised my arm. A blood-red chain locked around the man’s neck at the same time I gathered the power of Universe Break with my bare fist. I then punched the man right in the chest!

Bang!

1,712,671!

My punch sent the man stumbling a few steps to the back. His eyes widened in shock as he stared at me.

I then planted my sword on the ground and declared loudly, "The China server has never been afraid of anyone. We have always thought of Frostsword City and Iron Horse City as our allies, and we’d like to think that you consider us allies too! Therefore, we request that you give us the respect we deserve! If you do not, then we will meet you in battle! We have already defeated Cyan Earth City, Burning City and Hot Sand City. We will flatten Frostsword City and Iron Horse City as well if you want it so badly!"

Snowy Night hurriedly raised her hand and put a smile on her face. "Calm down, Lu Chen. That isn’t what my subordinate meant. Anyway, it’d be thoughtless of us to push further since you’ve put your foot down, so we shall stop here… By the way, we may choose to invade Purple Grape City later. You wouldn’t stop us from doing that, would you?"

I nodded. "I promise I won’t interfere if you choose to invade Purple Grape City. Now, please withdraw your troops, Snowy Night!"

"Good…"

The woman finally raised her arm and declared, "Withdraw! We are attacking the three cantons at Barren Frost Plains next!"

……

After the Russian players had withdrawn completely, I finally allowed myself a sigh of relief. Behind me, Li Chengfeng commented with a chuckle, "I thought Lu Chen was going to showcase his amazing diplomacy skills to convince our ‘ally’ to turn away, but in the end he still resorted to the Xuanyuan Sword…"

He Yi chuckled as well. "It’s great to have a silver tongue. It’s even better to have a sharp sword in hand when you work your silver tongue!"

I turned around and said, "Now that that’s done, it’s time to head back to Burning City as planned!"

However, Li Chengfeng said with a frown, "Lu Chen, we’ve been online for 27 hours straight. There are a lot of people who didn’t even get the chance to pee, and we’re still 11 hours away from the end of the Nation War. Why don’t we take a 6-hour break?"

I clenched my fists. "It’s not that I don’t want to give everyone a well-deserved break. I’m just worried that something might happen during these 6 hours, not to mention that Vienna’s Sorrow and his men are still around. Who knows when they’ll make a move?"

He Yi suggested, "How about this: Xu Yang and Du Thirteen will remain online to keep an eye on things. If something happens, they’ll immediately contact all offline players to return online. You need a break yourself, Lu Chen. You will lag if you stay online for too long. It’ll be bad if you encounter Vienna’s Sorrow during this time and get one-shot by him as a result, won't it?"

"Alright…" I acquiesced with a smile and said, "We’ll log out after we return to Burning City!"

"Mn!"

……

By the time our army of 200k players had returned to Burning City, the White Marsh Catapults had already finished their bombardment. Now, small groups of players were scaling the walls and skirmishing against the enemy. Tear Stain was nowhere to be seen as well. If I wasn’t mistaken, she had logged out of the game to take care of "business”. Let’s just say sometimes, a man could stay online for longer than a woman due to the physiological differences between our bodies.

Our players set up their tents and logged out of the game one after another. Blazing Hot Lips had done the same thing. We agreed to rest for 5 hours and return to the game 6 hours before the end of the Nation War for one final battle!

The moment I logged out of the game and removed my helmet, I immediately made a beeline for the toilet. I was this close to wetting the bed.

……

After I took a bath and wrapped a bath towel around my body, I took a moment to stare at my own reflection in the mirror. As water dripped down my hair, I suddenly felt like my face looked much older than before, and the energy in my eyes was fading little by little. Then, a terrible pain suddenly erupted from my neck!

"Ah…"

A gasp escaped my lips as I clutched the affected area. The veins on my neck bulged like they might burst, and before I knew it, my entire body was wracked with terrible pain. I was forced to lean against the basin for support, and it wasn’t until a long time later that my strength returned to me. When I opened my hand, I saw a tinge of black blood at the center of my palm.

It felt like a lightning bolt had struck me. So the inevitable is finally happening…?

I grabbed a tissue and wiped the blood on my neck as best I could. Thankfully, there was less blackish purple blood than I initially feared, so maybe the situation wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. Still, there was no mistaking the bulging veins around the area. As I looked at my own reflection once more, deep sorrow began to well inside my eyes. I punched the basin hard before leaving the bathroom.

……

After I put on my clothes, I took out a scarf from my luggage and wrapped it around my neck so that the girls wouldn’t notice any changes. At the same time, I sent Lin Yujia a message: "Yujia, has my blood sample reached Nanjing yet?"

Lin Yujia replied quickly, "Mn. They are in the middle of analyzing the virus’s[1] structure right now. Lu Chen, are you sure you want to continue keeping this a secret from Eve and Sister Mingyue? This is not fair to them."

"It’s fine. Please contact me as soon as you can. My condition is not very stable right now. Tell them to come up with a suppressant as quickly as they can, or I’m afraid I may not last the month."

"Okay…"

……

I left the room after I tidied my clothes and wiped away the bloodstain on my palm.

Dinner was already served at the dining table. He Yi looked up from her work and shot me a smile, "You must be tired. Have your fill and catch some sleep as quickly as you can, okay?"

"Yeah…"

While I was taking a seat, Xinran suddenly caressed my face and stared at me with her beautiful pupils. "Big brother? Are you okay? You look a little…"

"What’s wrong? Of course I’m okay." I removed her hand gently. "I’ve been fighting for a long time. Of course I would look a bit haggard. Anyway, you should wash your hands and get ready to eat dinner…"

"Okay…"

……

After I finished dinner—well, more like supper—with the girls, I went to bed and fell asleep in no time. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to sleep for long before my phone woke me up. It was Gui Guzi who called me.

"Has Chariot City and Hero City marched their forces to Burning City, Little Gui?" I asked.

Gui Guzi exclaimed in shock, "How did you know? Can you predict the future, boss Broken Halberd[2]?!!"

1. T/N: for the first time, the author typed the word virus in Chinese correctly. I’m not even joking ☜

2. T/N: Gui has memory issues I see ☜