81: Chapter 81 South Gate Crisis

"Brothers, follow me! The situation at the South City Gate is not right!"

I gave the order, and led a group of elites from the Dawn Guild sprinting toward the South City Gate. Ye Liuli followed closely behind me; her staff still bore the bloodstains from the recent battle, and she radiated an aura of killing intent.

"Ergou, we just stabilized the East City Gate, what exactly is going on at the South City Gate?" Ye Liuli asked while running.

"I don't know, but you heard that loud noise just now; it was even bigger than the commotion here at the East City Gate." I frowned, a bad premonition rising in my heart. "And I saw in the system channel just now that players at the South City Gate are dying in droves, it's flooding the screen."

Ye Liuli's expression changed: "It's that serious?"

"It is." I gritted my teeth. "Hurry up, if we're too late, we might not even get a sip of the soup."

Our group of over a dozen people consisted entirely of elites from the Dawn Guild, with the lowest level being 23. Under normal circumstances, this force would be enough to sweep through any leveling spot in Tianqi City. But today is different; today we are facing those lunatics from the Shadow Pavilion.

The closer we ran to the South City Gate, the more my heart sank.

The air was filled with the smell of blood, as well as the charred scent left behind by exploding skills. The sounds of fighting, screaming, and explosions from the distance blended together, making one's scalp tingle.

"Damn, this commotion is too big, right?" A warrior in the guild named "Tie Zhu" swallowed nervously. "It feels even more intense than what we were fighting at the East City Gate just now."

I didn't speak, just quickened my pace.

When we arrived at the South City Gate, the scene before my eyes made me gasp.

This is no longer a city gate; it's simply a living hell!

More than half of the South City Gate's walls had collapsed, and the gate itself had long since flown off somewhere. The ground was littered with corpses, including NPC guards, players, and some members of the Shadow Pavilion wearing black robes. Fresh blood had stained the ground a dark red, feeling sticky underfoot.

The most miserable were the players still fighting, running around like headless flies, being chased and slashed by the Shadow Pavilion members.

"Help! Someone save us!"

"What's the point of fighting? We can't win at all!"

"Retreat! Retreat quickly!"

Watching this scene, the anger in my heart flared up instantly.

These bastards from the Shadow Pavilion, do they really think Tianqi City is their backyard? They can just kill whoever they want?

"Brothers, attack!" I roared. "Fight them to the death!"

After saying that, I was the first to charge out.

Sword Saints Three Styles—Activate!

[Sword Qi Rampage]!

Countless sword qi burst forth from my body, covering the group of Shadow Pavilion members like a giant net. Those Black-Robed Men who were chasing the players never expected such a force to suddenly strike; caught off guard, seven or eight of them were instantly killed by me.

"It's the people from the Dawn Guild!"

"Reinforcements are here! Reinforcements are here!"

"Brothers, fight back!"

The players, who had already been in despair, saw us appear, and their morale instantly soared. One by one, they were like they'd been injected with adrenaline, howling as they charged back.

I wasn't idle either; the longsword in my hand danced like an electric fan, killing wherever I went.

[Layers of Sword Shadows]!

[Sword Heart Clarity]!

With all three styles activated, I was like a human meat grinder. Wherever I passed, the Shadow Pavilion members fell one after another. With my level 25 strength combined with the god-tier skill Sword Saints Three Styles, dealing with these ordinary Shadow Pavilion members was as easy as slicing melons and vegetables.

"Ergou, on your left!" Ye Liuli's voice came from behind.

Without turning my head, I backhanded a sword strike. A Black-Robed Man who wanted to ambush me was directly split in two by my sword, turning into white light and disappearing.

"Thanks!" I shouted, continuing to charge forward.

The battle was exceptionally intense, but with the addition of our fresh troops, the situation at the South City Gate was finally stabilized. The players who had originally been routed reorganized and began to counterattack.

While cutting down enemies, I observed the situation on the battlefield.

Although the Shadow Pavilion had quite a few people here, it didn't seem like they had any particularly powerful experts. Aside from a few squad leader-level ones that were troublesome, the others were all cannon fodder.

"Strange," I muttered to myself, "Where did all the experts of the Shadow Pavilion go?"

Just as I was thinking this, a familiar figure suddenly entered my line of sight.

It was a burly Berserker, carrying a huge battle axe in his hand, fiercely fighting against three Shadow Pavilion members. The battle axe swung with great force, and every axe strike drained a large amount of HP from a person.

"Long Aotian?!"

I widened my eyes, almost thinking I had seen wrong.

Isn't that guy the guild leader of the Dragon God Temple? Isn't he our sworn enemy? Why is he here?

And looking at him, it seems like he's also fighting against the Shadow Pavilion?

Long Aotian clearly noticed me too; his expression changed significantly, and his hand movements paused for a moment. Just because of this momentary opening, he was almost successfully ambushed by a member of the Shadow Pavilion.

"Guild Leader, watch out!" A member of the Dragon God Temple shouted.

Long Aotian's reaction was quite fast; he dodged the fatal blow with a side step, then backhanded an axe strike that sent the attacker flying.

"Chen Ergou, why are you here?" Long Aotian approached me while fighting, his tone full of vigilance.

"I was going to ask you that!" I slashed an enemy down. "Aren't you in cahoots with the Shadow Pavilion? Why are you fighting them?"

"Bullshit! Who is in cahoots with these lunatics!" Long Aotian said angrily. "If I had known they wanted to destroy Tianqi City, I wouldn't have cooperated with them even if it killed me!"

I was stunned for a moment: "What do you mean?"

"That bastard Senior Brother Liu Qing lied to me, saying it was just to provide some intelligence to the Shadow Pavilion and help them deal with some competitors." Long Aotian said through gritted teeth. "Who knew their real purpose was to destroy the entire Tianqi City!"

Looking at Long Aotian's angry expression, I roughly understood what was going on.

Although this guy is arrogant and domineering, he isn't stupid. If Tianqi City were really destroyed, it wouldn't benefit his Dragon God Temple either. His previous cooperation with the Shadow Pavilion was likely because he was swindled by that old fox Senior Brother Liu Qing.

"So you're atoning for your sins now?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Atoning for my ass!" Long Aotian slashed an enemy away with his axe. "I'm protecting Tianqi City!"

I smiled and said nothing more.

Regardless of what Long Aotian had done before, he was indeed fighting the Shadow Pavilion now. And looking at how desperately he was fighting, it didn't look like he was acting.

"Chen Ergou, when this is over, we'll settle our scores!" Long Aotian suddenly said.

"Sure, we'll see who knocks whom down then!" I replied.

After that, the two of us charged in the same direction simultaneously.

One with Sword Saints Three Styles fully activated, the other with Berserker rage mode maxed out, the two of us were like two bulldozers, rampaging through the enemy lines.

You have to say, our coordination was actually quite tacit.

I was responsible for ranged output and crowd control, using the Sword Qi Rampage to force the enemies together; Long Aotian was responsible for melee harvesting, and with a swing of that big axe, swathes of enemies fell.

"Three on the left!" I shouted.

"Received!" Long Aotian used a Whirlwind Slash, and those three Shadow Pavilion members flew straight into the sky.

"There's a mage on the right charging up a big skill!"

"Leave it to me!" I shot a stream of sword qi, the mage's casting was instantly interrupted, and then he was split in two by Long Aotian's axe.

This kind of coordination was as if we had rehearsed it countless times.

"Chen Ergou, you kid are not bad." Long Aotian said while fighting. "You're much stronger than I imagined."

"That's for sure, don't look at who I am." I replied smugly. "It's you, on the other hand, who is much stupider than I imagined, actually getting tricked by that old fox Senior Brother Liu Qing."

"You—" Long Aotian was so angry his face turned red, but now was certainly not the time to argue, so he could only hold his breath and continue fighting.

Under our combined attack, the Shadow Pavilion members at the South City Gate were finally cleared out. The remaining ones saw the situation was bad and retreated one after another.

"We won! We won!"

"Dawn Guild is awesome!"

"Dragon God Temple is also awesome!"

The players cheered, everyone incredibly excited.

But I couldn't be happy; I looked up at the sky, where the battle was still ongoing.

The great battle between Sword Saint Xiao Wuchen and the Shadow Pavilion Master had entered the white-hot stage, and the entire sky was churned into chaos by the aftermath of their battle. Thunder and lightning flashed, wild winds howled, as if it were the end of the world.

"That is the real battle." Long Aotian also looked up, his eyes full of gravity. "Compared to that, what we just fought was like playing house."

I nodded, a strong sense of unease welling up in my heart.

Although the South City Gate was held, if the battle in the sky is lost, everything will be meaningless.