Chapter 290: Glorious Victory

How in the world did they catch up?

Staring at the several figures closing in from all sides, the boundary of the Yundian Realm lay just ahead, yet these people barred the way like an insurmountable chasm!

At this moment, the cultivators of the Yundian Realm no longer wore their previous haughty countenances; in their stead was a heart full of shock and unspeakable terror!

In truth, it was not as though they had failed to investigate beforehand. They had probed into what exactly backed the Great Jin Kingdom, what emboldened the Wuwei Daoist Alliance to skip the Realm Cultivation Grand Meet, and why they even dared to defy their superior Yundian Realm.

Yet in their eyes, the Three Great Sacred Sects of the Cultivation Realm had stood tall for countless years, and the superior Yundian Realm had reaped immense benefits from them. After such a vast span of development, how could a suddenly emergent petty faction, with whatever meager advantages it had cobbled together, possibly compare to even a fraction of the Cultivation Realm?

But reality had dealt them a brutal blow.

And this blow seemed to shatter the grand dream of the superior Yundian Realm—a dream where countless cultivators gathered, ten thousand practitioners paid homage, and a Yundian cultivator could summon the clouds and rain with a mere wave of a hand!

Shattered to pieces, it fell like fragile glass, reducing to a pile of scrap.

A brief absence can work wonders, yet they had never imagined that the growth of the Great Jin Kingdom would be so terrifying!

At this moment, Gongshu Kuo and the others had nothing left in their minds; save for those few lines of poetry, their consciousness was entirely blank.

They did not even have the chance to flee!

"What is the name of that spell you used—the evasion technique that allowed you to catch up to us by flying atop swords?" Gongshu Kuo murmured.

"The Sword Controlling Technique," replied Xue Daolv, the Palace Master of the Liuyun Daoist Palace. "Considering that you two are seniors of the cultivation world, we will not bully you. Will you come with us quietly, or do you all wish to fight another round? When the cold steel clashes without eyes, we won't be so easy to talk to."

"Understood." Gongshu Kuo and Gongyang Jun took a deep breath. To fall from the high-and-mighty position of Yundian Realm family heads to miserable prisoners had taken but a single night!

"The shifting of times and tides brings vast changes to the world; it truly defies comprehension." Gongshu Kuo’s smile was stiff and laced with helplessness. "Though you have won today's battle, the Three Great Sacred Sects and the Gongyi family are no pushovers. Take care of yourselves."

...

On the battlefield, upon the deck of a broken flying boat that was on the verge of plunging downward, a Jin elite soldier clad in black armor held a severed shield in his left hand, swinging his long blade. Drenched in blood, he was surrounded by several cultivator soldiers of the Yundian Realm.

A soldier missing an arm leaned on his great shield for support, struggling to crawl out from the ruins.

A Jin cultivator dressed in a black Dharma robe, which was already torn to shreds, was covered in blood and filth. With a face as hideous as a ghost, he pursued the panicked and fleeing Yundian cultivator soldiers.

Even with various blessings bestowed upon them, these elites of the Great Jin Kingdom still possessed inherent deficiencies when facing the cultivator soldiers of Yundian; their battle had not been an easy one.

Warrior after warrior fought tooth and nail on the battlefield. They had come with the resolve to die, never once thinking of returning alive!

Yet at this very moment, piercing sunlight fell upon their heads. They subconsciously raised their eyes to see several figures streaking across the distant sky.

The high-level figures of the Yundian Realm, held fast in their midst, were now tightly bound by a golden rope.

"We have won!" a voice boomed from the high heavens, echoing across the wilderness!

"Won? We won?!"

A soldier who had fought to the death licked his parched lips and muttered to himself, still seemingly adrift in disbelief.

He feared this was an elusive dream, one that would vanish the moment he woke.

They had come prepared to perish, yet the outcome of this moment surpassed everyone's expectations.

A combined force of thirty thousand warriors and cultivators had defeated thirty thousand elite cultivators of the Yundian Realm. This battle was one destined to be written into the annals of history!

Whether laughing, weeping, or driven to madness, thunderous cheers shook the battlefield. Perhaps only in this manner could they awaken their bodies, numbed from combat, and feel that the outcome of this moment was real.

"Pass down the order! All wounded soldiers gather here immediately!" Ji Wu commanded with a solemn expression, issuing his final directives. "Assemble here for unified healing! For the severely wounded, administer emergency treatment first and rescue them quickly!"

"Your Majesty," an old general spoke up, "this battle is a grand victory, a cause for universal celebration!"

Ji Wu nodded. "Pass down the order. We shall hold a victory banquet!"

"A victory banquet?"

"Yes." Ji Wu nodded gravely. "The Great Jin Allied Forces—the Internet Cafe Army—will hold it in Jiuhua. Everyone gets a bottle of Cola, a bucket of instant noodles, and a sausage!"

"...Uh, understood!"

...

"Hahahaha!" At this moment, the Jiuhua shop was bustling with excitement, while within 'My Space', Owner Fang leaned back in his chair, listening to the recount by Su Tianji and the others. His stomach ached from laughing. "You're saying the Emperor is holding a victory celebration outside right now? Treating everyone to a bucket of instant noodles? And then logging on to grind in Legend?"

"Yes," Su Tianji stared at Fang Qi strangely. "What's so odd about that? The consumption per person costs nearly ten spirit crystals! Many people usually can't bring themselves to buy it."

Owner Fang held back his laughter. "Uh, nothing funny about it. It's quite good, quite good. Why didn't you go?"

"Master thought it was too noisy," Yuexin explained on her behalf from the side.

Meanwhile, Song Qingfeng, having nothing better to do, snuck sips of the owner’s tea. This stuff was beneficial to one's cultivation; no amount was ever too much. "I heard you two also participated in this battle?"

His tone was clearly laced with surprise; the two soft and cute girls did not look like the type who could step onto a battlefield.

"Of course! We are Master's direct disciples after all, and we've already reached the Spirit River Realm!" Fenghua said proudly. "Don't look down on us!"

Owner Fang shuffled the cards on the table. "Were you scared? With so many people."

"What's there to be scared of?" Fenghua countered. "Don't we fight like this in the game every day? Dozens of people at fewer times, hundreds or thousands at most. We're used to it."

Yuexin stuck out her tongue. "But when the Gongshu family head used the Fallen Heaven Awl for a sneak attack, it really scared us. I was right nearby at the time. Luckily, I was standing closer to the edge, otherwise even with a shield, I might not have held out."

"That moment was truly a close shave!" Fenghua expressed some lingering fear as well. "Thank goodness Master reminded us not to stand in the center of the crowd."

"I was the one who told her that—look on from the boundaries during team fights," Owner Fang remarked with a look of disdain. "During a team fight, area-of-effect attacks are naturally hurled toward where people are thickest. Standing a bit to the side at times like that shows real tactical awareness. Dealing the cards, dealing the cards!"

"So that's how it is." Though a wave of aversion rose in her heart, Su Tianji still had to admit that it pretty much boiled down to that logic.

Although 'My Space' lacked the intense passion of other games, its most prominent advantage was that everyone could gather together, even though Owner Fang was currently in the Morning Star Sea Realm.

After the storm of war, this place was like a small safe harbor. Sitting in the simple, clean room and sipping a cup of clear tea felt as serene and natural as escaping the conflicts of the mortal world.

Of course, that was assuming voices shouting things like "Two of Spades, Joker, Bomb!" did not ring out...

.

.

After clearing the DNS cache, it seems the frequently used words in my input method are all gone. I can only apologize to everyone for the occasional bizarre typos; I will fix them...

.