"Order the army to halt!"
After listening to his subordinate's report, the Demon Clan Grand Commander Guma immediately ordered the left and right flanks of the demon army to pause their advance. He then stepped out of his carriage and stopped to gaze into the distance.
Sure enough, from afar, Guma spotted a group of scale-armored, emerald-green tigers and massive, tortoise-like creatures appearing before the north gate of Anyang Town.
"Vimeng, are your demonic beasts no match for those creatures?"
The Demon Clan Grand Commander Guma looked at the centurion before him, who was none other than Vimeng, the one in charge of commanding the demonic beasts.
"Reporting to the Grand Commander, my unit has suffered heavy losses and is nearly wiped out!"
Centurion Vimeng said with some pain in his voice. These several hundred demonic beasts had been carefully selected from the vast mountains of Nanzhao Kingdom, thousands of miles away, and trained at great cost. Replacing them with new captures would not be an easy task.
"Pass my order: abandon the frontal assault and attack from the flanks in a pincer maneuver!"
Guma, capable of commanding a force of over a thousand, was no fool. After briefly assessing the situation ahead, he decisively changed his tactics.
Orders were relayed layer by layer, and the demon army slowly split to both sides, directly giving up the north gate of Anyang Town. The army divided into two, heading straight for the east and west gates.
"Huh? What are the demons up to?"
Jiang Yuan, standing atop the city wall, watched as the demon army suddenly began to split. Frowning, he glanced at Wen Ding Cang Sheng beside him and asked in confusion.
"It looks like they're changing formation. Hard to guess their intentions."
Wen Ding Cang Sheng exchanged a look with Jiang Yuan, equally puzzled, and shook his head.
On the demon side, Grand Commander Guma had just ordered the army to split when he turned back to see dust rising in the rear—a human army was charging toward them.
"Pass my order: immediately turn the army around and attack the enemy from behind!"
To avoid being caught in a pincer, Guma quickly commanded, prioritizing the elimination of this human force.
The reinforcements arriving from the rear were none other than the two regiments of the Proud World Guild that had been instantly killed by the demonic beasts earlier. Under the leadership of Proud World Xiao Kuang, they had regrouped at Pingyang Station and rushed back.
"Hurry!"
Proud World Xiao Kuang led the charge, and within moments, his two regiments reached the front of the demon army.
"Attack!"
As the Proud World Guild members closed in, Guma gave the order, and the demon army immediately charged at them.
In the blink of an eye, the Proud World Guild players, who had just respawned and arrived with Proud World Xiao Kuang, didn't even have a chance to resist before being wiped out again!
"Ahhh!"
Proud World Xiao Kuang, now a corpse, roared in fury as he watched his comrades fall in less than a second. He quickly sent a message to Proud World Long Huang.
"Boss, I just led the respawned two regiments here, and we got wiped out again!"
Seeing Proud World Xiao Kuang's message in the guild channel, Proud World Long Huang was both anxious and angry, cursing, "You idiot! Why didn't you come around from the east or west sides?"
"O-okay!"
Scolded, Proud World Xiao Kuang quickly replied in the guild channel, then respawned and reorganized the second and third regiments to head back.
After easily disposing of the two weak Proud World regiments, the demon army redirected its focus toward Anyang Town, bypassing the north gate guarded by Jiang Yuan and launching attacks on the east and west gates.
With the demons suddenly changing their attack direction, the heavily defended north gate faced no pressure, but the east and west gates were under immense strain. The defending soldiers were already locked in close combat with the demon troops!
"Lord Mao, the east gate requests reinforcements!"
"Lord Mao, the west gate can't hold on much longer!"
Within moments, Jiang Yuan heard the cries for help from the squad leaders defending the east and west gates.
These cries were also heard by the elite first regiment of the Proud World Guild, gathered at the south gate.
"Guild leader! Those NPCs can't hold out!"
The elite members of the first regiment were raring to go, looking at Proud World Long Huang with eager expressions.
"Let's go find that NPC in charge!"
Having been idle at the south gate for so long, Proud World Long Huang finally saw his chance. He led his guild brothers to find Mao Cheng'an, who was busy directing the defense within Anyang Town.
"General, the battle is critical. Can we support the east gate?"
After witnessing Mao Cheng'an's earlier prowess, Proud World Long Huang spoke cautiously.
"Fine! Go support the east gate. Don't let a single demon through!"
Mao Cheng'an hesitated briefly before nodding in agreement. In this critical moment, every extra pair of hands helped!
"Brothers! Charge with me!"
Overjoyed, Proud World Long Huang finally found an outlet for his pent-up emotions. He led the elite of the Proud World Guild straight to the east gate, engaging the demon army!
As soon as the first regiment joined the fight, they displayed formidable combat power. Unlike the paper-thin second and third regiments, the first regiment gathered all guild members above level 70, including many like "One Blade Breaks All Laws" who had advanced to hidden classes with explosive damage output!
With the first regiment's intervention, the precarious situation at the east gate stabilized, and Proud World Long Huang and his team reaped a massive wave of experience points.
"Long live the guild leader!"
"The guild leader is unstoppable!"
Seeing their stagnant experience bars start to skyrocket, the elite members of the first regiment beamed with joy, flattering Proud World Long Huang in the guild channel.
"Brothers, keep fighting! Let's aim for level 90 as fast as possible!"
Proud World Long Huang's mood improved as well. The gloom on his face lifted into a smile. Seeing the excited expressions of his first regiment members, he raised his arm and shouted with fervor.
But the next second, his smile froze completely. His expression shifted from joy and excitement to shock, finally settling into intense anger!
At both sides of the east gate, thousands of Sand River Turtles and Dragon Whisker Tigers suddenly appeared out of nowhere, blocking the Proud World Guild members inside the gate.
Soon, the second wave of demon attacks came. Proud World Long Huang and his team didn't even touch a single demon soldier, watching helplessly as billions of experience points flowed into Jiang Yuan's pocket!
"Jiang Yuan, what are you doing!"
Jiang Yuan's monster-stealing move enraged Proud World Long Huang. He looked around and spotted Jiang Yuan still standing on the north gate tower, roaring, "What are you doing?"
"I'm guarding the north gate. What else would I be doing?"
Hearing Proud World Long Huang's roar, Jiang Yuan spread his hands with an innocent expression.
"You guard your north gate! Why are you stealing our monsters at the east gate?"
Pointing at the summoned beasts appearing at the east gate, Proud World Long Huang demanded loudly.
Facing the accusation, Jiang Yuan didn't answer. Instead, he waved at Proud World Long Huang, signaling him to come over.
"Wait here for me."
Proud World Long Huang said to "One Blade Breaks All Laws" and the others, then stormed toward the north gate tower.
When he climbed up and stood beside Jiang Yuan, looking down from the height, he was stunned!
"Look, I've got too many summons. Sorry about that!"
Jiang Yuan pointed to the north, west, and east gates, shrugged helplessly.
Before the north, west, and east gates of Anyang Town, countless summoned creatures stood densely packed. Proud World Long Huang took one look and gasped!
Good grief, there were tens of thousands!
"You!"
Proud World Long Huang's chest heaved violently. He pointed at Jiang Yuan, furious but speechless!
Jiang Yuan was indeed guarding the north gate, but because Anyang Town was so small, his tens of thousands of summons had spread all around the town!
"Hmph!"
Unable to find fault with Jiang Yuan, Proud World Long Huang could only snort angrily, glare at him, and leave in frustration!
On the demon side, Grand Commander Guma, who had changed his attack strategy, was now staring grimly at the dense, unknown creatures before the three gates.
In less than five minutes, Guma's two waves of attacks had been completely neutralized by these creatures. After losing over a hundred elite demon soldiers, he hadn't even breached Anyang Town's defenses!
"Feng Qi!"
With a low growl from Guma, a short, wiry demon centurion immediately appeared before him.
"Find out immediately where these unknown creatures came from!"
At the Grand Commander's order, Centurion Feng Qi nodded in acknowledgment. Suddenly, a pair of massive wings sprouted from his small back!
As a rare flying-type demon within the clan, Feng Qi's true form was a demonic blood bat. His unique flying ability had been discovered and valued by Guma.
"Flap!"
Feng Qi beat his disproportionately large wings, flew over Anyang Town, circled briefly, and quickly spotted the source!
"Reporting to the Grand Commander, after investigation, I found that these unknown creatures are all the work of that human named Jiang Yuan on the north gate tower!"
Landing, Feng Qi described in detail how he had seen Jiang Yuan summoning Dragon Whisker Tigers.
"Damn human! Pass my order: at all costs, kill Jiang Yuan!"
Finally understanding why his attacks kept failing, Guma immediately issued the order to eliminate Jiang Yuan!
"Jiang Yuan, look! The demons are gathering back at the north gate!"
As soon as the demon army moved, the sharp-eyed Wen Ding Cang Sheng alerted Jiang Yuan.
"Strange, what trick are they pulling now?"
Jiang Yuan was equally puzzled, unable to fathom Grand Commander Guma's intentions.
Soon, the demon army regrouped at the north gate. After losing soldiers in the first two waves to Jiang Yuan, about 1,500 remained.
With Guma's command, the demon soldiers aimed their spears at Jiang Yuan and hurled them with all their might.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
A barrage of black spears filled the air like a dark cloud, hurtling straight at Jiang Yuan's face!
"Damn! This isn't fair!"
Seeing countless spears flying toward him with a whistling sound, Jiang Yuan yelped in surprise.
The city tower was bare, offering no cover.
With nowhere to hide, Jiang Yuan became a sitting duck against the thousands of spears!