Chapter 358: Like Water Through a Brick Wall
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue’s surroundings were immediately cleared. The two of them swiftly turned back to their mounts and rode to their army.
"After them! Don’t let them get away!" cried Humbly Gentleman with great hatred.
If Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue managed to escape to safety, it would be a massive blow to Humbly Gentleman’s soldier morale! However, during the casting of {Blizzard Sky} and {Lunar’s Dew}, all four guilds had scattered a great distance from them to avoid the attack. Now, to have them chasing after them was an incredible tough task. Furthermore, both Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue had mounts! A majority of the enemy soldiers were still running on their two feet! How could they run after a person who on a mount!? It was impossible! Not even a hundred foot soldiers could chase after them, all they could do is eat the dust that was flung onto them.
"Boss! Sister Snow and you were too cool! That’s bloody sick yo!" said Endless Starlight in the party channel.
"Was that the Paired Skill?"
"Yeah…that’s the Two-In-One Skill! Fu fu fu!" said Fatty Han after he shot an arrow and smile a V-shaped smile.
"AIYA! Noon tank! How could you be picky! I also want to be one with you!" said the little brat with a straight face, without any signs of her being shameful.
Zhang Yang stopped attacking immediately and almost slipped and fell when he heard what Wei Yan Er just said. "You stupid fat-f*ck! Can you please be a little more decent!? Please don’t be teaching that kind of stuff to a little kid!"
Fatty Han did not respond, but instead, Wei Yan Er struck the earth with her axe and glared at Zhang Yang. "Hey! Who are you calling a little kid?!"
"Who else!? Stop stopping and start killing!"
Everyone around the vicinity laughed at their comical act and continued killing. Even without Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue’s Paired Skill, Lone Desert Smoke’s combined attack force was naturally above the combined forces of all four guilds. During recruitment, Zhang Yang had a specific standard for players who wanted to join the guild. Because of that, the war between the guilds was leaning towards Lone Desert Smoke. He could not claim that each of his members could take on ten men at a time, but he was sure that they could handle a few opponents at once all by themselves!
Lone Desert Smoke players’ average level and equipment strength were better than the majority of the opponent guilds. In truth, they were supposed to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemy, however, the entire battle did show any signs of that! After all, Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue had gallantly performed a powerful attack on the enemy and had killed a large number of them, the enemy had already lost motivation!
Never underestimate the power of morale in a war. In large numbers, morale played an important role to determine the outcome of a battle! With Lone Desert Smoke burning with vigor, they had successfully pressurized the opponents, causing them to drop their weapons as the deaths continued to pile up.
However, even with Lone Desert Smoke’s superiority in war, both sides were suffering huge casualties. Zhang Yang turned his sight on Humbly Gentleman and said, "I’ll be right back. I need to kill that hypocrite!"
Destroy the leader, and the gang will collapse. Zhang Yang wanted to do just that. Since the morale of the enemy was already rock bottom, killing the leader would definitely be the final step in winning the war. Zhang Yang activated {Dig} and headed underground towards Humbly Gentleman. The best thing about this skill was the fact that he could have a clear view of what that was happening above ground and would never be detected nor blocked by anyone! Naturally, mounts would be left out during the activation of the skill.
Without much time wasted, Zhang Yang arrived at where Humbly Gentleman was. This man was a p*ssy to be blunt. He had never taken the reins and led his troops in the front lines. As a low-defense Spellcaster, he felt safest barking orders from far behind.
"Heh." Zhang Yang scoffed.
BOOM!
Zhang Yang broke the earth underneath Humbly Gentleman and stabbed him like a real ninja!
{Dance of the Heaven and Earth}!
Shoosh! A bright light flashed, followed by a shadow that emerged out from Zhang Yang to form a man wielding a sword. The shadow then cut into Humbly Gentleman’s body.
‘-10,000!’
‘-10,000!’
‘-10,000!’
After three pops, Humbly Gentleman dropped dead! The mount he was currently on was only a Gray-Silver tier that only increased his maximum HP by 11,000 which only gave him a total of 28,000 HP!
Pew! A quick gleam of gold jumped out in the air from Humbly Gentleman’s body. With lightning speed, Zhang Yang swiped the boots and stashed it in his inventory. Confused and disoriented, Humbly Gentleman had no idea on how Zhang Yang was able to kill him! To prevent any infiltration of Thieves, Humbly Gentleman had set up a perfect barricade around himself. He had placed members around him, forming a perfect ring. Even though Thieves could be invisible with their Stealth mode, they could not phase through living objects. He had completely lowered his guard and had paid for it with his face kissing the dirt, along with his dignity and his Yellow-Gold boots!
Naturally, Zhang Yang had planned it all out. This battle had to be cut short/ Thus, he had no need of saving his ulti {Dance of Heaven and Earth}. If he had not used it, that man would have the time to activate {Ice Frame}, leaving Zhang Yang open to attacks! Or worse, Humbly Gentleman could have escaped!
Now that he had started the fire, it's best to pour oil to spread the fire! This time, Zhang Yang changed his target to Kiyumi, the guild master of Meteor Rain. He then activated the Ring of Beastman's Ancestor and summoned an old orc from the ring. He then pointed his magic staff towards Kiyumi and started chanting a spell.
Pew! A long, white, electric burst out and shot towards Kiyumi.
‘-10,000!’
‘-10,000!’
‘-10,000!’
With three hits, similar to Humbly Gentleman, Kiyumi suffered a huge burst of damage and dropped down. Even though Kiyomi had a Gray-Silver mount like Humbly Gentleman, he was still killed within 3 seconds by the old orc’s {Chaotic Dance of Electric Current}.
In less than a minute, Zhang Yang had killed two of the enemy’s leaders!
Even though anyone could easily revive after running back to the body in their soul form, or simply be {Revived} by a Priest, the morale of the entire army was greatly affected. Zhang Yang’s brave and bold feat had sent down a cold shiver to the enemy. Inversely, Lone Desert Smoke was massively invigorated, knowing that their boss had single-handedly defeated two leaders! With them removed from the battle ground, the enemy’s morale had dropped to a new level and was clearly faltering.
From the corner of the battle field, came a loud commanding roar. "Kill Zhan Yu! Do not let him live! Kill him now!"
The loud roar belonged to the guild master of Brilliance, Dragon Slayer. After all that had happened, that man still wanted to be Zhao Zi Long1! He thinks he can remain unscathed from this?
Zhang Yang laughed at his idiocy and activated {Shadow of the Void}. His entire character slipped into another dimension, rendering him invisible to others.. 20 seconds later, he had reappeared at the furthest distance possible for him to travel.
"Praise the guild master!"
"Long live Zhan Yu!"
"Victory for Lone Desert Smoke!"
"In the name of Zhan Yu, we kill!"
"In the name of Lone Desert Smoke, we shall kill them all!"
"For glory!"
"For titties!"
"Please refrain from using indecent context in your speech. This is your first offense. There will be no further chances given," said Hundred Shots amidst the cheers.
With the raging morale from all Lone Desert Smoke members, victory was just an inch away, the moment Zhang Yang had slain Humbly Gentleman and Kiyumi. The battle continued on and the results were extremely obvious. Victory was already considered to be in hand. The delay was due to the fact that there were still unrelenting players from the opposing side who still believed that they could still turn the tables around.
Zhang Yang smiled and rode his bear away from the battle. He had done his part and decided to let the rest of the guild take care of the scraps. Without pausing, Zhang Yang rode towards the Altair Flatlands.
In the party channel, Hundred Shots had been constantly reporting on what was happening on their side, from how many enemies killed, to total equipment collected. Even though Lone Desert Smoke had suffered many casualties, with players losing their experience points and equipment, the end result was still a major profit.
Unlike the grand canyon that had not seen the lights of days, Altair Flatlands was a complete inverse of that. This place was brimming with light that it could be said to not have seen the stars in the night sky, excluding the sun which was a star. During the day, it would be the same as your everyday brightness. However, when night falls, the place would be filled with light from the corner of the horizon, glowing with such radiant colors and brightness.
Zhang Yang had come here to search for the fifth descendant of the seven generals, called Eins Brook. According to the quest description, the NPC lived in Lake Basilock, in the west region of Altair Flatlands. Other than the name provided, Zhang Yang had to find his physical location by himself. Luckily, Zhang Yang was familiar to Altair Flatlands. If he was not, Zhang Yang could have taken a full day to search for Lake Basilock.
In two hours or less, Zhang Yang had arrived at the lake. Although the lake was not as large as Great Lake Valla, it was still huge. At least, Zhang Yang could still see the land on the other side of the lake. There was a small island…or rather, large rocks that formed a small tiny island in the middle of the lake. Perhaps, when it rains cats and dogs, the rock will be completely submerged by the rising water.
Zhang Yang started to think. With the lake being so huge, where should he start searching for the NPC? After some thoughts, he decided to start by searching around the lake. As simple as it should be, the journey was just too long to complete. By the time he was only halfway through, the war between Lone Desert Smoke and the four armies had already come to an end.
In conclusion, Lone Desert Smoke had 18,326 casualties, 3,906 losses of equipment, and had killed a total of 32,982 members! They had even collected a total of 5,389 equipment!
Zhang Yang was extremely satisfied with the results of the war. He then tasked Hundred Shots to distribute the equipment obtained from the war to all members, based on their achievements, and reimburse the players that had lost their equipment in the war. In a minute, there was a flood of messages filling up the guild channel. Everyone in the guild had probably received the news from Hundred Shots’ announcement.
As they were celebrating, Zhang Yang was frowning in dismay. He had made a complete circle around the lake and had found nothing. There were nothing, but deserted land at the side of the lake. It was a thick forest, yet there were no traces of any human activities. Zhang Yang had wasted a total of 5 hours!
Zhang Yang frowned and decided that he should just start with the lake instead. He then summoned the Mythical Turtle and dove underwater. The Mythical Turtle shot through the water like a torpedo and was only leaving a trail of bubbles behind its tail.
The search of Eins Brook was clearly a long and arduous quest. Zhang Yang had spent 3 days searching the entire lake, and had only managed to cover 75% of it! Naturally, Zhang Yang had not wasted his time to search all the way, he had also managed to collect countless [Devil’s Algae], which was considered to be a small consolation prize for him.
On the fourth day, Zhang Yang had arrived at a different island within the lake. It was a rather huge island that was filled with sky-scraping trees, that measured close to a hundred meters! The leaves on the tall trees were so tightly compact and spread, that Zhang Yang could roughly estimate that the shadows cast by the tree could take up as much as 10% of the entire lake. While the sun rays could still seep through the tiny gaps of the leaves, it had made the island truly mystical and serene.
Within the thick forest, there was a man-made pathway that headed straight into the forest. From where Zhang Yang stood, he could roughly see a white colored building. Zhang Yang unsummoned the turtle and called out the bear. As he rode further and deeper into the forest, he had a good feeling of reaching his destination, because for the past few days of lingering in the lake, he had only encountered beasts and not human tracks!
Soon after, Zhang Yang had arrived at a small village. There was a huge white stone statue erected at the entrance of the village. The white colored building that he had saw back then was this statue.
Just when he was standing and looking at the statue, many villagers had surrounded Zhang Yang, pointing weapons at him and looking rather hostile.
"Outsider! How dare you remain on your horse and not bow down to Lord Eins Brook!" said a villager that behaved like the chief villager of the group.
1. Zhao Zi Long, or as commonly known as Zhao Yun, courtesy name Zilong, was a military general who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty and early Three Kingdoms period. In the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhao Yun had never been wounded in battle before, so there were no scars on his body.