Chapter 1 Nie Yan Enters

After passing through a narrow cave, Nie Yan entered a massive cavern, incredibly spacious with a ceiling towering fifty or sixty yards high. Boiling lava churned across the floor, and two large Lava Monsters came into view. These Lava Monsters were five or six yards tall, their entire bodies composed of lava. They were quite stout, with hot lava constantly dripping from them, splashing onto the ground.

They resembled miniature Lava Giants. Lava-type creatures were immune to fire magic and possessed extremely high physical defense. Players generally used ice magic to achieve better attack results. The Lava Monsters' attacks were lava-based, neither magic nor physical, and also inflicted fire damage, making them extremely troublesome.

Blazing Lava Monster: Level 80 Elite, HP 120,000.

They were level 80 elites with a lot of health. It was impossible for Nie Yan to kill these two Blazing Lava Monsters; he could only try to bypass them.

He examined the surrounding terrain. The ground was covered in lava-filled ravines. The two Blazing Lava Monsters blocked his path completely, moving back and forth, leaving a trail of burning lava wherever they went, the flames refusing to extinguish.

Nie Yan glanced at the cave walls. The cave ceiling was also covered in molten lava, sparks flying everywhere. Fortunately, the edges of the walls were covered in yellow crystals, making it potentially traversable.

He entered Stealth mode and crept toward that area. With a leap, he jumped over the flowing lava and used the skill from the Crawler Ring, sticking to the cave wall. He climbed along the wall, slowly bypassing the two Blazing Lava Monsters.

Nie Yan's Stealth was high, and the two Blazing Lava Monsters did not detect his presence as they wandered around.

Suddenly, the Blazing Lava Monster closest to Nie Yan paused and looked in his direction.

Nie Yan quickly pressed himself against the wall, adding some Stealth-enhancing status skills.

The Blazing Lava Monster stared at Nie Yan's hiding place for a long time, then waved its right hand, sending a stream of molten lava toward him.

Nie Yan's heart tightened. Had he been discovered?

He suddenly realized that the lava was aimed in the wrong direction. He clung tightly to the wall. With a loud crash, the lava struck the wall about three yards away, causing cracks to appear. He was almost shaken off.

The Blazing Lava Monster's lava attack was truly terrifying.

Not finding anything, it turned its head and resumed its wandering.

Nie Yan continued to climb forward. The cracked cave wall was even harder to grip than before. As he moved forward a short distance, a piece of rock on the wall broke off and fell to the ground, shattering into powder with a soft thud.

"Damn it!" Nie Yan thought glumly, looking at the two Blazing Lava Monsters. They had indeed been startled by the noise and were charging toward him.

Nie Yan could no longer afford to hesitate. He lunged forward, landing steadily and sprinting away as fast as he could.

The two Blazing Lava Monsters began to attack, raising their hands and sending streams of lava into the sky, raining down on Nie Yan's area. Sparks flew everywhere, and flames erupted.

Seeing that he was about to be hit by a stream of lava, Nie Yan used Gale Step to dodge past it, running wildly.

The two Blazing Lava Monsters quickly caught up, swinging their fists at him from different directions.

Just as Nie Yan was about to be hit, he extended his left hand, shooting a spider silk that stuck to the rock wall in front of him. He gave a strong pull, his body flying up. Taking advantage of the Crawler Ring's effect, he quickly crawled along the wall, then leaped out again.

The two Blazing Lava Monsters missed their target. Their bodies collided heavily, and with a loud crash, the force of the impact knocked them off balance, causing them to fall to the ground.

Nie Yan seized the opportunity to run far away, shaking off the two Blazing Lava Monsters.

This map was also a first-time exploration, so there were many elite creatures. Nie Yan carefully maintained Stealth, afraid of encountering even the smallest problem.

After traversing the cave for more than an hour, bypassing one Blazing Lava Monster after another, Nie Yan couldn't help but marvel at the cave's unfathomable depth.

Looking at the time, there were still about five hours until the agreed meeting time with Kuang Ao Zhan Qiang. His progress was a bit slow; he hadn't even found his target yet. Nie Yan still didn't know where Bennett's spirit was leading him.

After passing through a rugged, narrow passage, the view ahead suddenly opened up into a spacious area of about 1000 by 1000 yards, with a ceiling about twenty yards high. Lava was everywhere, and about twenty or thirty Blazing Lava Monsters roamed around.

In the center of this area was a thirteen- or fourteen-yard-high platform, standing isolated and abrupt. The top was very flat, as if something had been placed there.

It was difficult to bypass this group of Blazing Lava Monsters. They were active near the platform, guarding it. Any creature that approached would be attacked en masse. Normally, Nie Yan might have chosen to hang down from the cave ceiling, but unfortunately, the cave ceiling was covered in flames, making it impossible to climb or stick spider silk to it. It was quite difficult for Nie Yan to reach the platform.

As Nie Yan pondered his next move, he suddenly received a message from Guo Huai: Zhan Dao Shi Xue had a force of approximately 50,000 troops heading towards the Ni Ren Tribe's Blackrock Fortress. Of the Ni Ren Tribe's four fortresses, the weakest in defense was Blackrock Fortress. Although it had arrow towers, it hired very few NPC archers and lacked large siege crossbows. The walls were slightly inferior to those of other fortresses, and the credit point commercial area inside had not yet been fully developed.

Although losing Blackrock Fortress wouldn't fundamentally harm the Ni Ren Tribe, it was still a fortress! And if Zhan Dao Shi Xue captured Blackrock Fortress, they would surely become more aggressive and attack the Ni Ren Tribe's other fortresses. Blackrock Fortress was just the first step.

"How did Zhan Dao Shi Xue get here?" Nie Yan asked Guo Huai in a whisper.

"Most of them are riding horses, about 50,000 or so. They left five hours ago. Several thousand were teleported to Carol City. I've had the Jialan Temple and the Holy Roman Empire control the Zhan Dao Shi Xue members who teleported there, preventing them from leaving the city easily," Guo Huai said. His handling of the situation was very timely and effective.

Riding horses took a long time, but it was the most economical way. If all 50,000 of them had teleported to Carol City, they would definitely have been trapped in the city by the Ni Ren Tribe.

Zhan Dao Shi Xue dared to launch a cross-city operation against the Ni Ren Tribe's fortress with just 50,000 people, so they must have some advantages.

"Is there any movement from the Mage Alliance and the Holy Guardians?" Nie Yan asked. He was most worried about these two guilds. In the previous wars, the Mage Alliance and the Holy Guardians had suffered no losses and were developing well. If they also got involved, the Ni Ren Tribe would be in trouble.

"They each sent about a thousand elites to participate. Tian Shi Ba Ye is also joining in, with about five hundred people," Guo Huai said worriedly.

Hearing Guo Huai's words, Nie Yan immediately became tense. On the battlefield, more people didn't necessarily mean victory. Twenty elite players working together with coordinated group attacks could overwhelm even a thousand ordinary players. With Tian Shi Ba Ye, Zhan Dao Shi Xue, and the Holy Guardians all sending elites, this matter was becoming troublesome.

"Any other news?" Nie Yan asked. He was silent for a moment. It seemed that this war was inevitable. If the Ni Ren Tribe lost, it would definitely suffer a major blow. If Zhan Dao Shi Xue lost, the guild would likely disband. Neither guild could afford to lose, so they would both fight to the death.

"This is a video recorded by our people. Take a look," Guo Huai sent Nie Yan a video.

Nie Yan found a hidden spot and opened the video.

The video was probably recorded by a Thief. The Thief was observing outside Zhan Dao Shi Xue's formation. Teams of Zhan Dao Shi Xue players passed by not far from him. After a while, a huge machine passed by on the plain. This huge machine was made of wood, covered in hard iron armor. In the center was a long, thick piece of wood, the top of which resembled a ladle, capable of holding stones or similar objects. It was very skillfully constructed.

Seeing this huge machine, Nie Yan's expression changed drastically. He hadn't participated in siege battles in his previous life, but he had seen these big guys several times while passing by battlefields. This big guy was called an Ironclad Catapult!

Catapults came in many types, including ballistic catapults, ironclad catapults, and so on. Ballistic catapults had a longer range and were most often used to besiege cities. Ironclad catapults had a shorter range, but still five or six hundred yards or more, and could launch five or six burning iron balls at the same time. They were also quite powerful when besieging cities. In confrontations between armies, these ironclad catapults were simply killing machines, capable of wiping out a large number of players with a single launch.

In his previous life, Nie Yan had seen the shocking sight of hundreds of ironclad catapults firing a volley of shots. After two rounds of bombardment, half of a level six reinforced city wall had collapsed.

"What are those big guys?" Guo Huai asked. His knowledge was limited, but from the machine's construction, he could guess that it was a catapult. He just didn't know how powerful it was.

"Ironclad catapults. How many of those do they have?" Nie Yan asked, frowning.

"We don't know yet. It doesn't seem to be many."

"Have the Thief Hundred-Man Team find out exactly how many ironclad catapults they have!" Nie Yan said seriously. This question had to be answered.