The World Online

Handan County, meeting room.

“Outside of our expectations, we really managed to catch a big fish,” said Di Chen as he looked out the hall with an inexplicable expression. When he learned that Shanhai County was cooperating with Snow-War Rose, Di Chen immediately sent his envoy to get in touch with Snow-War Rose’s core members. Under the immense bombardment of gold, they finally received some news from one of the core members.

The news they received caught Di Chen off guard.

Juedai Fenghua icily sat in the room and slowly said, “Seems like we need to hasten our negotiations with Jianqi Zongheng. We cannot let Qiyue Wuyi get ahead of us again.”

Di Chen did not turn around. Instead, he placed his hands behind his back and said, “Yijian Xilai demands too much. It seems like it is not easy to manipulate this big fish.”

“According to the reports of my people, he had some emotional disputes with the master of Tingyu Floor, Jianqi Leiyin. Perhaps, we could use this as a breakthrough point to pry open Yijian Xilai’s mouth.”

“Right. Then, I’ll hand over this task to you,” Di Chen finally turned around and said in a deeply affectionate tone.

Juedai Fenghua’s beautiful eyebrows frowned, and she nodded without making any promises.

“By the way, Sha Pojun is not behaving nicely lately. He’s walking too close to Chun Shenjun,” Di Chen said as he took a sip of tea and sat down. Then, he bitterly said, “I never thought that we would do something that would jeopardize ourselves.”

Juedai Fenghua shook her and said, “Don’t worry too much. At least, through the probings of Asura, we managed to obtain first-hand information about Shanhai County’s army. As for Asura siding with Chun Shenjun, I do not think you have to worry too much.”

“Oh? Why so?”

“Chun Shenjun is a man of unfathomable depth and skepticism. Sha Pojun has followed us for a long time already. Suddenly, he decides to side with Chun Shenjun. You can’t possibly think that Chun Shenjun would trust Asura so easily, right? To him, Sha Pojun is just a chess piece on his chessboard.”

Di Chen nodded. He seemed agreed with Juedai Fenghua’s judgment.

However, Juedai Fenghua frowned again and said with worry, “Compared to Sha pojun, I am still more worried about Qiyue Wuyi. From the reports we obtained from all our sources, Shanhai County has spent the sum on those purchases.”

“Yeah,” lamented Di Chen. Then, he said bitterly, “Previously, grandfather thought that trying to sow discord between the Feng Family and Qiyue Wuyi would cut off the funds of Shanhai County. He thought it would make it impossible for them to survive the famine. Who would have thought that they would not only manage it without any losses but still have a considerable quantity of funds? God knows how he managed to gather up so much.”

When he recalled his grandfather’s angry face, Di Chen had no idea what expression or opinion to show. Ever since a young age, his grandfather had always been a humongous mountain that constrained him greatly. Unfortunately, things that could work well in reality would sometimes become incompatible in the game, which caused his grandfather to embarrass himself.

“Therefore, it seems like this coming anniversary auction will be another reign of terror. We must not let our guards down.” They already witnessed what had happened first hand during the last auction. They could never take the power of these enormous families lightly.

“Nothing we can do about it. We should probably control our spendings for the moment. No matter what, we must use all our efforts to obtain that item.” Di Chen was left with limited choices, so he could only feel helpless. He didn’t know if he should feel lucky or unlucky to have an opponent like Qiyue Wuyi.

Ouyang Shuo’s crazy purchases also gave rise to some discussion in the Shanhai Alliance channel.

“Whoa, Boss! You have definitely kept your cards hidden well! Who would have known that Snow-War Rose is also our ally,” said Gong Chengshi in a carefree tone.

“If you guys need to cooperate with the player guilds, you can go to them.” Since he had decided to reveal this matter, Ouyang Shuo directly brought the Snow-War Rose into the Shanhai Alliance channel.

“Yeah, sure. With the help of the guild, some things will be so much easier to accomplish,” said Xunlong Dianxue.

“Heh heh, it’s all for our mutual benefits.”

“Umm…. To be honest, our Consonance County is associated with Tingyu Floor in Dali.” Bai Hua took this opportunity to reveal her hidden cards.

Since the relationship between Shanhai County and Snow-War Rose was revealed, the master of Tingyu Floor, Mingyue Zhaodajiang, immediately contacted Bai Hua. After some discussion, they decided to reveal their relationship as well.

With this, in the guild wars, Tingyu Floor and Snow-War Rose could rely on each other and prevent friendly fire. They could also efficiently compete with the other top 10 guilds.

Her news did not cause much surprise among the members of the Shanhai Alliance.

Among all the members, other than Feng Qiuhuang, all of them knew the famous name of Consonance Studio. They were known for their management of their guilds in all the games they were involved in. As a matter of course, they surely would not say goodbye to their strengths even after they switched to territory building mode. Arranging a portion of their people to form a guild was just a natural phenomenal.

“No wonder!” said Xunlong Dianxue with some hidden and unexpressed thoughts.

Bai Hua smiled. Naturally, she understood the thoughts of Xunlong Dianxue. During the famine, the Four Seas Bank had taken root in the territories of every member in Shanhai Alliance—except Consonance County.

Everyone had felt curious about how Consonance County managed to deal with the famine so easily. The revelation of their relationship with Qingfeng Pavillion finally gave them an answer. With the fundings of Tingyu Floor, Consonance County will definitely pull off with ease.

“Wowowowow. How come I have a feeling that we, the Shanhai Alliance, could not only dominate the lord-type players, but also the adventurer-type players?” said the smiling Gong Chengshi.

Ouyang Shuo frowned as soon as he heard Gong Chengshi’s words. He quickly said, “Don’t let your guards down and don’t grow overconfident. Also, keep it a secret, the matter of Qingfeng Pavillion. Keep it hidden as deeply as possible. The longer we keep it a secret, the better.” As a man who likes to hide all the cards in his sleeves, Ouyang Shuo did not like to expose his full strength to everyone.

“Yes sir, understood!”

Feng Qiuhuang did not say anything at all until everyone fully digested the news. Then, she said, “Wuyi, according to the time calculation, I’m guessing that the third battle map will open soon?”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and replied, “Indeed, based on the previous patterns, my guess is that the battle map will appear after the 100th town upgrades to a county.”

“Which means it will be open soon? Should we start our preparations earlier?”

“How are you going to prepare for it? You don’t even know the campaign scenario that will open,” asked Gong Chengshi.

Feng Qiuhuang had obviously come prepared. She said, “According to the previous patterns, after Western Zhou, it should be one of the iconic battles in the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period.”

“Not bad. There are a huge number of famous historical figures in that era.” Clearly, Xunlong Dianxue focused more on this aspect.

“Yeah, an uncountable number of them. Just thinking of this already fires me up!”

“Try and guess what battle Gaia will choose then.”

“There are too many iconic battles during the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, especially the Warring State period, where there was an incredible amount of wars. It’s so hard to guess,” said Xunlong Dianxue.

“Although there are a lot of iconic battles during that era, if I have to pick the one that is most symbolic and significant, I think it should be the Battle of Changping,” confidently said Feng Qiuhuang.

Everyone was surprised. They calmed down after they thought about it thoroughly again. There was a great chance that things would progress in the way that Feng Qiuhuang had guessed.

“Wuyi, what do you think about it?” seeing Ouyang Shuo did not say anything, Feng Qiuhuang immediately asked him with great curiosity.

Ouyang Shuo felt startled in his heart. Of course, he knew that the third campaign scenario was the Battle of Changping—just like Feng Qiuhuang had hypothesized. It seems like the players had started to decipher the patterns Gaia always used.

With his realization, Ouyang Shuo suddenly no longer looked forward to the battle map as much as before.

“Same here. I think there is a 90% chance it will be the Battle of Changping,” said Ouyang Shuo calmly.

“The Battle of Changping. One of the fiercest and cruelest battles in the history of China. Qin and Zhao threw in more than a million elite soldiers into the battlefield. All of these elites were equally as strong as our armies, maybe even more powerful. This campaign will definitely be very difficult. Are we strong enough for it?” said Xunlong Dianxue, who was very familiar with the history.

“I don’t think we will just be cannon fodder. In this campaign, there will be more than 10,000 players. Worst comes to worst, we can still put up a fight,” Feng Qiuhuang said with great hopes.

“The fact is, as history proceeds to the Warring States, dominating the battlefield with the advantage of advanced equipment like the two previous campaigns will no longer be possible.”

“Heh heh, maybe we can’t, but Boss, you can still do it. Tang dynasty’s Mingguang Armor and Song Dynasty’s Buren Armor. Advanced armors like these still did not exist in the era of Warring States,” said Gong Chengshi.

“Yeah, Boss. When will Shanhai County start selling us armor and weaponry? Qin Qiong is bugging me every day for that equipment!” said Xunlong Dianxue.

“We are still trying our best to build up a military industrial system. The earliest would be next year,” said Ouyang Shuo with a bitter smile. He knew that these guys had not given up hope on laying their hands on the armor.

“Hey hey hey, get back to the main topic!” interjected Feng Qiuhuang eagerly when the three men started to change the topic. She added, “If our prediction is correct, the campaign will be very difficult. As such, we should get ready earlier.”

“But there is a problem. We don’t know what period Gaia will set the campaign. The Battle of Changping continued for three years. There are too many unstable elements,” said the frowning Xunlong Dianxue.

Xunlong Dianxue’s words were the truth. Even Ouyang Shuo was unclear about how Gaia simulated the system.

If it’s the period of time before the Battle of Changping, before the King of Zhao swapped out Lian Bo with Zhao Kuo, then both Qin and Zhao will be equally matched. As such, choosing Zhao will be easier to make a comeback. However, if Gaia chose the period of time when the Qin army had the upper hand and surrounded the Zhao army, then choosing Qin will grant them an overwhelming advantage. Making a comeback would almost be impossible in such a scenario.

“It’s no use thinking too much. Might as well just wait for the announcement of the campaign scenario and discuss the situation it again,” said the temporarily clueless Ouyang Shuo.

“Fine,” said the unsatisfied Feng Qiuhuang.

“Wuyi, don’t forget about Yanhuang Alliance,” reminded Bai Hua, “They lost so badly in the previous campaign because they were not familiar with it. Additionally, your surprising moves caught them off guard. The third campaign scenario is very predictable. Di Chen and his allies are not fools, so they can definitely make the same prediction as ours. Therefore, with that, they begin at the same starting line as us. They definitely want to one up us, so we must be prepared.”

“What’s the big deal. If they want war, we will give them war!” said Gong Chengshi with great confidence.

Ouyang Shuo did not say anything, but he nodded.