Zhan Long

Chapter 770 - New Year's Battle

The next day, I had to resist the urge to rush back home and log onto the game, since I didn’t bring the helmet with me. I followed Wan Er to the local shopping district for a stroll. She spent another couple dozen thousand on clothes and accessories. I was utterly defeated by her. Thankfully, her father was happily willing to pay for her clothes. After all, the assets from the Tian Jin Corporation were more than enough to satisfy her needs for many many lifetimes.

After lunch, I took Wan Er back to our apartment.

By the time we returned, it was already one in the afternoon. Dong Cheng had yet to come back. Most likely due to the fact that Dong Cheng wouldn’t allow his precious daughter to leave too early. But, thinking about it, Dong Cheng was probably anxious to come back. Just as expected, I received a call from her before I even got the chance to log on. When she heard that Wan Er and I had returned, she then suggested that we all eat dinner together.

……

Log on!

“Shua!”

I appeared in the middle of Tian Ling City. I summoned my Flying Scythe Horse. I leapt onto the saddle and charged straight towards the Royal Army camp. The guild chat was filled with new year's celebrations. I quickly sent out a group text to everyone, and then sent individual greetings to all of the core officers. After that, I turned off the communications device. I had just reached the Royal Army camp.

Outside of the camp, I saw a group of cavalrymen training their horseback riding. A group of them saw me and respectfully greeted me, “General!”

I nodded, “Continue!”

“Yes sir!”

I rode my Flying Scythe Horse straight into the camp. There was an enormous gap between the level of skill that each of the training grounds displayed when I first arrived. In one of the training grounds, I saw Han Yuan circling the grounds on his horse. He was training a group of barbarian soldiers the art of defense and advancing in the Shield Camp.

“General!”

Han Yuan had spotted me and shouted to me from a distance, “General’s finally here. I haven’t seen you for a day, and here I thought that the general had forgotten about us!”

I smiled, “How’s that possible? Never in a million years. How has the training been so far?”

Han Yuan patted his chest with pride, “Even though I can’t assure you that the battle power of the Royal Army is number one in the empire, but just our foot soldiers‘ power is enough to get us into the top three. I think, that besides the Flame Dragon Army and the Xia Yu Army’s elites, the Royal Army’s battle potential is number one!”

I nodded, “That’s good!”

Han Yuan then added, “General, when will we return to Dragon City?”

I said, “There’s no need for me to organize that. You guys decide. Everyday, we’ll pick two thousand men to scout the Ice Ridge Mountains. While they’re there, they can kill off some of the scattered monsters. Don’t forget to bring some good archers. By fortifying those areas, we can decrease some of the pressure on Ba Huang City and Dragon City.”

“Yes, I will immediately set that up! That’s right…”

Han Yuan walked forward and lowered his voice, “Long Xing went to the palace by himself today. Based on my friends in the guard, Long Xing went to see Prince Theodore. That b*st*rd must be planning something. He must’ve told the Crown Prince Theodore all about our training techniques!”

I smiled, “Its fine. The Royal Army is not ashamed of anything. After all, we aren’t doing anything behind anyone’s back. If Long Xing wants to make secret reports, then he can. As long as he doesn’t turn his back on the Royal Army!”

“Yes sir!”

……

Very soon, Han Yuan picked out a two thousand man scout team. Everyone brought with them a set amount of rations. Afterwards, they left the camp and went straight for the Ice Ridge Mountains. Despite this, I still felt worried. Tian Ling City must not only face the pressure from the main cities, Moon City, Port City, and Flame Cloud City, but it must also face ambushes from the Hybrid Demon Territory. This kind of pressure must be there to hone the experience of the players, right?

Right at that moment, I heard Li Mu’s voice from the guild chat——

Li Mu: “D*mn, are the Japanese players from Port City really making a move? What the f*ck do they mean, they’re coming out to hunt. Do they think we’re some free city?! Where they can take whatever the f*ck quests they want?”

I asked, “Li Mu, what’s going on?”

Li Mu said, “Port City is owned by the Japanese and the Koreans. The second strongest Japanese guild——New Moon has over 100,000 players. They’re known to be almost on par with the number one guild Casualty. And so, they’re particularly arrogant. The vice guildmaster of New Moon, Battle Thunder, recently entered into Tian Ling City territory by himself and hunted down several Chinese Players. At first, only a dozen of them came. After that, several hundred came in and another thousand. Today, over ten thousand Japanese players entered. It’s as though they’re trying to chase us out from the War God River territories!”

I clenched my teeth, “They’re being that showy?”

Li Mu replied, “Exactly. It gets even worse. New Moon would shout, saying that if any Chinese player entered the map south of the War God River, they would kill them without mercy. New Moon does what they say they will do. How could we stand that kind of shame?”

Wan Jian replied, “We cannot!”

I smiled back, “Yup, we cannot!”

Wan Er smiled and joined in, “Seeing as we can’t, how about [Zhan Long] make the first strike? Either way, it's already been half a month since we’ve had a guild event. Let’s all go to the south War God River and hunt. All of our main players should go!”

I grunted in agreement, “Sounds good. Have all ten thousand of our Steel Blade Cavalry come out of the nest. If New Moon plans on being this arrogant, then clearly, they have something up their sleeve. Port City would not stop at just putting one branch of soldiers within our city limits. Once we attack, it’s best if Enemies at the Gate, Judgement and Prague are all notified. That way, they can provide assistance. If New Moon plans on being this outrageous, then let’s kill all the Port City players in our territory!”

Li Mu laughed, “I agree! Let me make the arrangements. As for our battle plan, Guildmaster and Vice guildmaster can discuss that!”

I glanced at the map and said, “There’s no need to go to the Magic Bamboo Forest. We’ll go around from the Bridge of Fate. It’ll take us two hours to get south of the War God River. Let’s give them a surprise!”

“Yes sir!”

……

As [Zhan Long] prepared for battle, I sent a message to Ye Lai, Yan Zhao Warrior and Misty Clouds. Everyone gathered together. The large guilds all prepared their armies, and we all ran straight for the Southern Map of the War God River. We cannot let the Japanese continue killing our Chinese players! Otherwise, they’ll actually think there’s nobody here to guard the Chinese Servers!”

I replenished my potion and card supply. Afterwards, I urged my horse out of the city gates. Within ten minutes, there were over seven thousand men gathered outside. Since it was late in the evening, gathering together nine thousand Steel Blade Horsemen was no problem. After a few calls, I’m sure that we’ll be able to get ten thousand. At that point, it’d be more than enough to make those Port City players eat their own words!

Wan Er and Dong Cheng both arrived, bringing along the mages, archers and healers with them. Within half an hour, I lead the Steel Blade Horsemen in an advance, and we protected all of the players who weren’t mounts at the center of our formation.

Not long after, our army passed across the Bridge of Fate, over the War God’s River. There, we entered the Xia Yu Army camp. We went around the acres of military stations and then rushed straight towards the southern map of the War God’s River. We progressed very quickly on the main roads. As we advanced, I recounted all of the manpower we had. This time, [Zhan Long] brought 27,000+ players. The whole hive was coming out. We lead the charge, while [Judgement], [Prague] and [Enemies at the Gate] followed from behind. This time, our mission was very simple, and that was to deal one heavy blow to Port City. If we don’t show them a little muscle, they’ll think we could be bullied!

……

Before us, a soft breeze swayed through the trees and branches. South of the War God River was a grass plain. It was a zone that crossed with the forest. Further ahead was an incredibly deep canyon. There was a simple drawbridge across that canyon. Any constructions in the game weren’t easily broken, unless it had taken a large by a city weapon. Thus, our entourage could easily pass over it without spending too much time.

Since this was a simple activity, our operation went by quickly and smoothly. And , to top it off, we did a fairly good job keeping it a secret. We had done so well that when we appeared on the southern map, most of the Korean players we met on the way were completely caught off guard when they saw.

“Look!”

Yao Yan raised her long sword and pointed forward, “There’s a team of Japanese players that are grinding levels. It looks like there’s around 200+ of them. Should we attack?”

I nodded, “This is the Chinese Server territory. They must’ve already prepared themselves for the chance to be killed if they’re here. Attack!”

I swung my blade and charged forward with a group of Steel Blade Horsemen. The Japanese players were thrown into chaos. Quite a few of the horsemen jumped onto their mounts and ran. They didn’t even bother to think about their team mates. In the end, however, they were still killed in the rush of our cavalry.

Qing Qian pulled out her dagger and appeared beside me. She looked into my eyes and said, “Brother Xiao Yao, the moment we attack, they’ll all be notified. [New Moon]’s main force is about a thousand yards away. Its around an eight thousand man team. What should we do. Should we immediately charge at them, or should we wait for our ranged players before we make a move?”

I asked, “We’re sure that there’s only 8000 of them?”

Qing Qian nodded, “Yup. The other fourteen thousand are five thousand yards away killing some [House of Prestige] players. They won’t get here anytime soon!”

I immediately raised my Dragon Reservoir Sword and shouted, “Steel Blade Horsemen, charge with me! Let’s crush these eight thousand Japs!”

Everyone pulled out their blades. Over 9000 of [Zhan Long]’s Steel Blade Horsemen activated and they charged all at once. Furthermore, Wan Er, Qing Qian, Dancing Forest and Wolf stepped up as well. All of the high level assassins had their [Unrivaled Spirit] effect, which gave them the ability to dash forward at the same speed.

Our hooves thundered through the brush. When nine thousand of the horsemen arrived on the plains, we could see the eight thousand awaiting us in formation. Their mages, archers, and musketeers created a net of firepower. Looks like they were expecting us.

……

I swung my blade and ordered, “Moon Elf Steel Blade Horsemen, you’re now Team One. Everyone else, follow behind them. Today is New Year’s. I wish everyone a happy new year, let’s win this battle!”