79: Chapter 80 The First Flag on the Outer Edge

As the two pages of the leaderboard lit up, the atmosphere in front of the bridge, which had been suppressed until now, shifted instantly.

The scene did not become more chaotic; instead, everyone's gaze became more focused.

Because everyone saw it.

On the points leaderboard, who had the most kills, who was dismantling the most aggressively, and who had secured the major front-line points were clear at a glance.

On the control zone leaderboard, those standing at the front were all people who had genuinely secured the nodes.

Grey Stele Post.

Outer Fire Well.

Rift Gate Fire Bridge.

The three nodes that had just been cleared were being strung together by a line of grey-red fire.

Lu Jin's name was not hanging on the top row.

But the front column of the control zone leaderboard was so illuminated by him that no one could bypass it.

Many people in front of the bridge changed the way they looked at him on the spot.

Before, he was still the "person who opened the gates."

Now, he was already the "person who occupied the lines."

Just at this moment, the mass of grey fire at the very top of the leaderboard page suddenly sank downward.

An old flag that had not yet acknowledged a master slowly flipped out from within the fire.

The flag was not large.

It had a grey base, crimson edges, and a blank center.

But everyone recognized it.

This was the First Flag of the Perimeter.

The Military Court's acknowledgement fire would not grant you a title right away.

It would only give a flag first.

Whoever pressed it into their own control zone would get the priority for this round of perimeter control.

The fire, materials, line clearing, and stele-touching order would all change accordingly.

Therefore, the moment the corner of the flag appeared, several strong teams in front of the bridge moved simultaneously.

"Seize the flag!"

"Don't let him press it back first!"

"Middle line, move forward!"

The Heavy Hammer Team was the first to hold the front.

Beiyue Academy's main perimeter point-seizing team cut along the left fire path, intending to cut off Lu Jin's control return line to the Post Station and Fire Well.

Higher up, a team of Ning Family control players with grey-silver short capes had also pressed up, their positioning extremely steady; once their mirror patterns were laid out, they didn't move again.

And standing at the very front was none other than Ning Hangce.

He did not stop Ning Yanqiu today.

But he also didn't intend to yield the flag.

"Once this flag is in hand, the entire subsequent round must follow the flag."

Ning Hangce stood at a high vantage point, his voice steady and controlled, "Ning Yanqiu, return to the high position."

Ning Yanqiu did not turn back.

She only stared at the blank flag slowly descending from the leaderboard fire, the cold mirror fragment disk in her palm feeling slightly chilled.

"I am standing in this position today."

Ning Hangce's brows twitched slightly.

"Mirror Frost should hold the high ground, not seize the flag."

"Who says you can't seize it while holding the high ground?"

As she finished this sentence, the two Night Wings in front of the bridge had already swept out a step ahead.

At the same time, Lu Jin did not wait for a second sentence.

"Qiao Ye, open the line at the front entrance!"

"Wen Zhao, pull the front platform of the fire gate into three segments for me; don't let anyone swallow it in one go from the middle line!"

Qiao Ye's curses and the sound of shields exploded almost simultaneously.

Wen Zhao was even faster; with a flick of three Line-Marking Nails, the area of old fire patterns in front of the fire gate, which had been chaotic, was immediately cut into three layers—inner, middle, and outer. Anyone who wanted to rush straight for the flag would first have to step on fire, then on ash, and then endure the rat tide.

But even so, it couldn't slow everyone down.

The leader of the Heavy Hammer Team smashed open the outer layer of fire patterns, forcibly bringing two others to rush toward the flag.

The young man with the grey-brown short cape from Beiyue Academy was even more ruthless; he didn't compete for the landing point but directly cut obliquely across Lu Jin's control return line, clearly intending to ensure that even if you could get the flag, you couldn't press it back.

This was precisely the hardest part of the First Flag.

Whoever touched the flag first could only count as the beginning.

What truly determined the outcome was who could bring it back into their own line.

Lu Jin saw this extremely clearly.

So he didn't look at the flag first.

He looked at the three lines first.

The Post Station had fire.

The Fire Well had continuity.

The fire gate had a gate.

As long as these three lines were not broken, even if the First Flag only fell into his hands for three breaths, it could still be recognized by the Military Court into the control zone account.

"Don't leave the lines."

His voice was not loud, but it immediately suppressed the chaos in front, "Before the flag falls, no one is to help others scatter our lines."

When this sentence fell, many people in front of the bridge cursed inwardly.

Because they suddenly understood.

What Lu Jin had his eyes on was the entire perimeter framework.

Previously, everyone thought he was just a step faster than others in opening the gate, continuing the well, and establishing the station.

But by this moment, these three things had truly become a control zone net capable of devouring people for the first time.

The flag fell lower and lower.

The grey fire dragged the flag's tail, swaying in the wind in front of the bridge.

The lower it went, the more chaotic the wind became.

Hot wind rolled out from the fire gate.

Cold wind surged up along the Rift Bridge.

The small gap in the middle, while not looking large, was precisely the hardest place to hang a person.

A Heavy Hammer Team member rushed forward first.

Just as the person rushed within three zhang of the flag, Ning Yanqiu lifted her fingertips.

The cold white mirror line pressed onto the small patch of the steadiest wind beside his feet first.

The person had originally been riding the wind smoothly, but this felt like stepping on a loose stone, and his body tilted instantly.

Qiao Ye was waiting; with a push of his shield, he knocked the person out from under the flag on the spot.

The Beiyue Academy side followed almost at the same instant.

The young man with the grey-brown short cape entered the fray himself, stabbing his rock shield short wall forward, just enough to block the point where Lu Jin was about to cut back to the fire gate front platform.

"You can touch the flag first."

He stared at Lu Jin, his gaze extremely steady, "But the line must be left behind."

Lu Jin did not reply.

The rat tide beneath his feet had already scattered a step ahead, going under the rock shield to gnaw at the thinnest layer of the grey seam.

Wen Zhao's second line of fire followed, cutting right onto the retreat path behind the rock shield that was most convenient for recovery.

This move was taking the path of dismantling the structure.

The area in front of the bridge became increasingly chaotic.

And the mirror wind from above was also becoming heavier.

Sweat quickly broke out on Ning Yanqiu's temples.

What was pressed in her hands today had shifted from a small patch of space or an opening for a person to fall through, to an entire flag.

Where the flag drifted.

Who could touch it.

Whether they could stay steady after touching it.

All of this had to pass through her wind first.

Just at this moment, the three Mirror Frost Crows that had been circling behind her shoulders suddenly shuddered in unison.

The three Mirror Frost Crows resonated simultaneously.

The cold mirror fragment disk pressed into her palm; as the fire at the bridge gate, the continuous fire at the Fire Well, and the newly awakened old fire aura from the edge of the Main Stele Area swirled up together, the circle of new white markings that had long been faintly visible on the edges of the three Mirror Frost Crows' feathers was finally completely lit up by this great gust of wind.

The one at the front cried out first.

The cry was not loud.

But it was as cold as a line of fine snow brushing against iron.

The next instant, the mirror-white patterns of the other two Mirror Frost Crows converged entirely onto the lead raven.

One convergence.

Then one suppression.

The entire wing bone of the Master Crow seemed to be straightened anew by something.

The edges of the feathers, which had originally been just thinly white, suddenly brightened all the way from the wing roots, the feather color turning from the cold white within the old grey into a frost-bright color that truly carried a mirror surface.

A line of extremely fine Cold Mirror master markings appeared beneath its beak, and the coldness in its eyes had, for the first time, found its own direction.

It had, itself, acknowledged its position.

Someone in front of the bridge lost their voice on the spot.

"Molting feathers?"

"No... this has already stepped onto the threshold of a hero!"

Even Ning Hangce's gaze changed for the first time.

The mirror pattern he had already raised halfway, preparing to press back to the high position, actually stopped abruptly for half a beat.

Because he knew better than anyone.

This change was far more than just brighter feather colors or fiercer raven nature.

Within the Cold Mirror lineage, the opening that could truly bear the calibration markings, receive the front standard, and stand out with its own duty had been stepped out by her.

Rudimentary-level hero.

And Ning Yanqiu herself clearly had not expected this to come so quickly.

Her palm burned, her Sea of Consciousness shuddered accordingly, and even her breathing stalled for an instant.

But the Master Crow did not stop.

It flapped its long wings, sweeping to a position directly above the First Flag a step ahead, and with a spread of its wings, it forcibly sliced the most chaotic mass of wind into two halves.

The left side could be entered.

The right side could not.

The small flag-landing line in the middle was firmly pinned down by it using an entire Cold Mirror calibration marking.

With this move, even Wen Zhao looked up and cursed a dirty word first.

"Alright."

"This time, it's already the main control field."

Everyone in front of the bridge saw it.

Lu Jin also saw it.

He did not waste this opportunity at all.

"Now!"

As the word fell, he had already moved first.

He stepped into the inner line Wen Zhao had just retracted, borrowed the breach Qiao Ye had just opened, stepped onto the shield back of the Bone-Armor Furnace Guard, and launched himself forward, his palm just catching the flagpole of the blank flag that was being pinned in mid-air by the Cold Mirror Sovereign Crow.

The moment it was in his hand, the grey fire on the flag jumped violently.

What it acknowledged was the line.

The fire from the three nodes in front of the bridge rolled onto the flagpole almost simultaneously.

"Stop him!"

The Heavy Hammer Team, Beiyue Academy, and the upper-level fast teams all pressed in simultaneously.

But it was already too late.

Because Lu Jin had no intention of carrying the flag far.

He twisted his wrist, directly pressing the First Flag of the Perimeter firmly into the innermost control line of the fire gate front platform, which had already been recognized by both the battle map and the leaderboard fire.

One breath.

The fire patterns in front of the bridge lit up completely.

Two breaths.

The three points—Grey Stele Post, Outer Fire Well, and Rift Gate Fire Bridge—resounded simultaneously.

Three breaths.

The entire blank flag went "whoosh," flipping out crimson edges from its grey base, a deep black fire pattern slowly emerging in the center of the flag, and then it suddenly stabilized.

The acknowledgement fire had acknowledged it.

The area in front of the bridge went silent for an instant.

Immediately after, the entire perimeter and outer edge seemed to have been lifted by a breath of energy by this single flag.

On the top row of the control zone leaderboard, Lu Jin's line flipped all the way to the top.

The points leaderboard also jumped accordingly.

The acknowledgement fire gave real credit.

The First Flag had already been steadily pressed into his control zone.

At this, even the gazes of those at the front perimeter who had originally regarded Lu Jin as just "the best fighter among the newcomers" changed completely.

Being able to fight and being able to lead a perimeter flag were two different things.

And higher up.

Ning Yanqiu had not yet landed.

The coldness of the cold mirror fragment disk in her palm had pressed along her wrist bone all the way to her shoulder; the thin membrane at the edge of her Sea of Consciousness that had been blocking her was also forcibly knocked open by an extremely fine crack during the moment the Master Crow molted.

She hadn't completely passed through.

But she had already seen the door.

Ning Hangce stood at the high opening, watching her for a long time.

Until the Master Crow, which had just completed the Cold Mirror molting, landed back behind her shoulder, and the other two Mirror Frost Crows retracted like shadows into auxiliary feathers, did he slowly retract the mirror pattern in his hand that should have been pressed further forward.

"Mirror Frost..."

He only said two words before stopping.

Finally, he only let his gaze fall onto the newly flipped frost-white long feathers of the Master Crow behind her shoulder, and did not say "should return to the control position" again.

This was heavier than saying anything else.

And in front of the bridge, someone had already spread the words in a low voice.

"This auxiliary sentry, these words can no longer be suppressed."

"They are now one air, one ground, two cores."

Lu Jin heard it.

Ning Yanqiu also heard it.

But neither of them turned back.

Because the First Flag of the Perimeter had just been acknowledged, and a colder gust of wind from in front of the bridge had already descended.

A figure in pale gold and white robes stood, at some unknown time, outside the outermost layer of grey fire in front of the bridge.

The patterns on the robes were extremely clean.

In their hand, they only held a scroll of fine white gold.

The person who came was from the Temple.

The newcomer's gaze first swept over the First Flag that had just been pressed down, then paused on the old fire seam beside Lu Jin's feet that still retained a bit of spore ash aura; the voice was not loud, but it was clear enough for the entire area in front of the bridge to hear.

"Lu Jin."

"According to the Temple's sacrificial path blacklist observation clause, we are now initiating a seal and investigation into the spore disaster samples you deployed on the front line."