Chapter 737: To Protect With One’s Life

Translator: alyschu

The massacre continued for three whole hours. It was a complete and one-sided slaughter.

Eye of the Storm died to Li Chengfeng and Gui Guzi. Unwilling to accept this conclusion even in the very end, the man had pointed at the sky and shouted as if there was blood in his throat, "I yearn to repay my country, but my strength failed me!"

Li Chengfeng relieved him of his head right after that, and that’s how a man’s dream of flattening Dawn City with one million cavalrymen ultimately died. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Even if their commander hadn’t died, the will of Hot Sun City was already disrupted by the death trap they had walked into. To them, it seemed like they were surrounded by an endless amount of Chinese players, when in reality our troops didn’t even make up 20% of their number. However, the Northern Alliance cavalry were stuck in one place, and they could only watch as we cut down their HP with ranged attacks and beat them down row after row. Without healing, magic knights were nowhere as tenacious as they should’ve been, and in this scenario they were no more than lambs to the slaughter.

......

Three hours later, Horse Hoof Valley positively stank with the stench of blood. The ground was littered with countless corpses, and the trees were covered with blood-shot vultures. They looked like they couldn’t wait to feed on the bodies that hadn’t been cleared out by the system yet.

Riding atop the Armored Ice Qilin Horse and looking down on the valley from an elevated position, I couldn’t help but let out an emotional sigh. When the old people said, "Blood flowed like the river, and millions of bodies were strewn across the battlefield", they were probably referring to this scene, weren’t they? We had wiped out almost all of Hot Sand City’s mobile troops in this battle, and only small pockets of mages and archers protected by meatshields were still alive to tickle us. It was only a matter of time before they were crushed by our cavalry.

"Phew..."

Li Chengfeng sucked in a deep breath and leaned against a rock. He closed his eyes and said, "Finally. I’m not even the one taking a beating and I’m exhausted as hell. This mission is fucking inhumane, dammit. If that isn’t bad enough, we can’t even resupply ourselves. Ugh, I’m so hungry! Where are the supplies Thirteen promised us, by the way? Why aren’t they here yet?”

Du Thirteen walked over with a grim expression on his face before Li Chengfeng finished his sentence. "I forgot to tell you, but our supply team encountered a Titan City cavalry troop at the edge of Dragonbone Mountain Range two hours ago, and they robbed all 5000 people’s worth of 24-hour food supply!"

"They took everything?"

I shivered. "A lot of us are going to starve to death, aren’t we?"

Li Chengfeng nodded and pointed at the bodies. "Our men are currently sweeping the battlefield in hopes of finding some Rank 10 bread, but I heard that the drop chance of food consumables is only 1%. If that’s true, that means that we still only have enough to feed about ten thousand players or so!"

He Yi sat down behind the rock next to mine and sighed. "This is bad. I didn’t think we’d fail to protect our supply line. Does that mean we have no choice but to eat the low-rank bread sold at Dawn City? At our level, we’ll be starving for at least 8 hours a day. Worst case scenario, we might even have to fight with our stats reduced by 40%."

I clenched my fists worriedly. "We can’t let that happen. Horrible death awaits us if we fight a war on an empty stomach!"

Chaos Moon nodded in agreement. "Eternal Moon Corporation is so shameless. The second we enter the Nation War phase, they immediately tighten the restriction on food..."

Xu Yang said, "Eh, it’s mostly because fighting players is so much more tiring than fighting mobs. Usually, 3 loaves of Rank 10 bread can last for 3 days and nights. But in these conditions, they can only last for 24 hours."

Du Thirteen said, "Anyway, the new plan is to buy only bread that can sustain us for 24 hours at Sky City. Then, the supply team will teleport to Dark Moon City and make their way over through a shortcut. It’ll still take around 3 hours for our cavalry to reach us, but it’s either that or everyone starves to death in Dawn Valley."

Stranger of Three Lifetimes gave her tummy a rub before saying, "I’ve been starving since a while ago..."

Li Chengfeng said, "The war is just too fierce right now. For example, Little Piglet’s Steel Needle Porcupine Cavalry is currently slaughtering Hot Sun City’s mages, priests and archer parties outside the valley right now. If there’s one thing Wang Dongliang is good at, it’s his ability to outrun the strong and bully the weak, that shameless bastard."

I smiled. "It’s a good thing this time. Our guild has fought too many hard battles in a row and suffered too many losses, so we must plot our next battle with care."

Stranger of Three Lifetimes said, "The battle of Horse Hoof Valley is well fought though. We’ve annihilated Hot Sand City’s one million cavalry, and Hegemon Palace is fucking up the rest of their ranged parties. Hot Sand City is basically out of the game at this point, meaning that one of the eight cities of the Northern Alliance is wiped out!"

It was at this moment Xu Yang reported, "The casualty report is out. We’ve lost zero Dragonlight Cavalrymen this battle, so we still have 1700+ men. We’ve lost many Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen, and their number has dwindled to 5000 or so. Our main guild and subguilds add up to a total of 100843 players, or just above 100k. In conclusion, we’ve suffered very minor losses in Horse Hoof Valley."

I nodded and gripped the Cyan Netherworld Sword tighter. "Get ready to leave the valley and enter Winter Pine Forest. We’ll find an opening to take out the invaders from there."

"Okay!"

Everyone stood up and summoned their mounts. After the battlefield was swept, everyone—even me—got distributed exactly one loaf of bread, meaning that we could only fight normally for another 8 hours. After that period of time has passed, even Blazing Hot Lips and The Monarch Descends would be starving with us.

We exited Horse Hoof Valley and marched to the east. On the open plains to the north, we saw Hegemon Palace’s cavalry slaughtering Hot Sun City’s ranged parties. As expected, Wang Dongliang had been building up his strength this whole time, and the result—the Steel Needle Porcupine Cavalry—didn’t look half bad. At the very least, they had no troubles cutting down defenseless ranged players whatsoever. We could leave this place to them for sure.

Beep!

It was a message from Hot and Sour Noodles: "Lu Chen, congratulations on your victory at Horse Hoof Valley! Everyone’s spirits are lifted by it! We have a new problem, however. Titan God and his ten thousand cavalrymen had decided to stop sieging Sky City and intercept our supply lines instead. Titan God is a man who says what he means. After engaging Wind Fantasy and Snowy Cathaya at Sky Forest for about an hour or so, he lost around 7000 Fire Rhinoceros Cavalrymen and is left with only a little over 12k. The Fire Rhinoceros is a Purple Gold Rank Boss mount, so they are too powerful for most people to beat. We need someone to take them out and protect our supply lines!"

I sucked in a deep breath and said, "Uncle, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had been fighting battle after battle since the beginning, and we took out an entire Hot Sand City at the cost of half our men. After everything we’ve done, you’re asking us to protect the supply lines? There are over forty thousand guilds in Sky City, Vanished God City and Wind City. Must you make us do this?"

Hot and Sour Noodles replied apologetically, "I know I’m putting you between a rock and a hard place, but the situation is really, really desperate right now. Candle Dragon and Purple Lily have worn themselves to the bone fighting against Hero City, Seven Star City, Chariot City and Burning City at the frontlines, and even Snowy Cathaya has dispatched their cavalry to aid in the battle. No one expects the casual guilds to be able to sway the tides of the battlefield too much at this point. The burden is all on the Top 100 guilds of the Guild Ranking."

He added, "Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is a rising guild and the hope of this Nation War. I’m not blind, I can see that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is even stronger than Candle Dragon, not to mention that you’ve proven yourself to be capable of overcoming seemingly impossible odds with your ploys multiple times already. So... what I’m getting at is, this is the time to use our strongest card. If I send any other guild besides yours, I’m afraid that they’ll only become the Titan God and the Fire Rhinoceros Cavalry’s food."

I frowned and answered, "Fine, I’ll head over right away."

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Wait, no!"

Hot and Sour Noodles hurriedly stopped me, "You’ll have to split your army. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ main forces are needed at Winter Pine Forest because the situation there is critical, and Candle Dragon could use your help at any moment. The Northern Alliance’s army is also still pouring in endlessly from Windy Trail, so someone has to reinforce Winter Pine Forest..."

I yelled angrily, "What the hell, who the hell do you think we are? Do you really not know how strong Titan God is? That is a player whom even Lin Yixin had troubles defeating, and you’re telling me to split my army?? Are you trying to use Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls as cannon fodder, uncle? This is my brothers and sisters’ lives we’re talking about!!"

Hot and Sour Noodles took another deep breath before reporting, "Candle Dragon lost 70% of their men, Purple Lily lost 58% of their men, Throne Seeker is completely annihilated, Hall of Immortality lost 59% of their men, and Rose of the Holy Domain 63%. Our enemy is powerful beyond imagination, and everyone is giving it their all right now. The only way we can protect our homeland is to shed every last drop of sweat, tears and blood, so please, Lu Chen, I’m begging you!"

I uttered through gritted teeth, "Fine. The supply line is located at a canyon called Breeze Canyon, right? Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls will protect that route. You are the supreme commander of this Nation War, so you’d better mobilize as many Vanished God City and Wind City reinforcements as you can!"

"I know. Baidicheng, Immortal Sword Inn, Zero Pitch Sonata and more will be arriving in two hours. Some of Russia’s players from Iron Horse City had made it through Cyan Scale Straits and parked their boats about five kilometers away from Yellow Stone Desert. They’ll come over immediately after the threat to Vanished God City is eliminated."

"Understood. I’m going!"

"Okay! Remember, you mustn’t leave the main defense zone! Send someone else to protect the supply line!"

"Fuck, I know!"

"..."

......

I closed the communicator and turned around to face everyone. I said, "Hot and Sour Noodles just send us new orders. Titan God and 12000 cavalrymen have cut off the supply line from Sky City close to Dragonbone Mountain Range. We are required to split our army and send someone to take down the bastard. Who has the courage to carry out this quest?!"

"Titan God..." Everyone sucked in a deep breath. His strength was well known to everyone, and even Lin Yixin with her Great Earth Transformation didn’t have a 100% chance of beating him. Who could possibly take up such a task?

Finally, a man carrying a blade spurred his mount forward and smiled at me. "I guess I’m the only one who can do this."

I looked and saw that it was Li Chengfeng. The man was wearing a lazy smile as usual, but I could see his clear eyes brimming with determination and fervor.

......

"Chengfeng, I can’t afford you too many men, and the Titan God’s cavalry may not be the only enemy you will encounter. You know that, don’t you?" I asked.

Li Chengfeng crossed his sword in front of himself and replied calmly, "I’ve already been chased by a million elite cavalrymen before. What could possibly be scarier than that?"

I smiled. "Okay, I’m giving you all 5103 of our remaining Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen and over 10000 riders from the subguilds. Godspeed, Chengfeng. Your battle will literally decide our fate."

Li Chengfeng nodded and declared solemnly, "I will protect our server’s dignity with my life!”