159

After dinner, Nightingale and Xiao Su returned.

That afternoon, both guilds received news that they were going to form an alliance.

Gu Zhan noticed that the number of people in the Red Cloud had increased, and they had gained another stronghold.

With such results from their first move, Yu Ye Zhou felt confident about the future.

Over the next few days, the three factions started cooperating, quickly capturing the third stronghold.

The map turned red, and it was clear the other faction was getting anxious.

They also began occupying a stronghold, but their progress was much slower than that of the Red Cloud.

Perhaps the Red cloud's success was too prominent, as Yu Ye Zhou received several cooperation offers from other guilds.

Having missed the first wave of cooperation offers, Yu Ye Zhou was no longer as easygoing. He started negotiating terms with these people.

While the factions fought fiercely for strongholds, Gu Zhan remained at the guild’s base.

One afternoon, after finishing lunch, he stepped out of the cafeteria and noticed that the bright sky suddenly darkened.

There were still many people coming and going, and everyone froze for a moment.

The darkening sky was unfamiliar to them. After all, Chun Bai Cheng had no real weather, and they hadn’t seen a sky like this for a long time. Since Hai Chao guild started attacking the city, the sky had turned a dark red. Now, that red was growing deeper, and it seemed as if ominous clouds were gathering above them, heavy and threatening to fall at any moment.

The people stood there, staring at the sky for a long time, before someone asked in disbelief, "Is it going to rain?"

Rain. How unfamiliar that word sounded.

Gu Zhan suddenly snapped out of it and turned sharply, shouting at the people nearby, "Get out of the way! It's an enemy attack!"

No sooner had he spoken than the dark clouds above them descended rapidly, with flashes of fire at their edges. The people soon realized that those weren’t just clouds, but an unidentifiable form of attack.

This world granted people abilities beyond their imagination, like the various skills in a game. Without facing each other in the dungeons, players couldn’t immediately recognize what this was.

They could only try to find shelter, while massive fireballs rained down on the guild courtyard, burning a nearby gazebo to charcoal.

The fires spread quickly, with fireballs falling one after another.

Soon, guild members with special abilities rushed out, activating protective shields to block the fireballs.

The guild buildings had all been gradually exchanged using Yu Ye Zhou’s points, and if he knew they were being destroyed, he would probably cry on the spot.

After a moment’s thought, Gu Zhan summoned the sealed little river spirit from his star map space. The cold, gloomy river water quickly extinguished the flames, while the little spirit appeared, confused, staring at Gu Zhan from within the water.

Gu Zhan said, "Help."

The spirit had long merged with the river and had a much greater control over it than Gu Zhan. With her help, even the smallest embers in the guild were extinguished.

At this point, several figures appeared in the sky, all dressed in fire-red attire. The leader of them seemed somewhat familiar.

Gu Zhan looked closely and realized that he was one of the Hai Chao members, named Lie Yan, whom Yu Ye Zhou had warned about recently.

He was holding a weapon that sprayed fire.

Lie Yan had been infamous even before Hai Chao formed, enjoying hunting teammates in dungeons.

It was surprising that he had joined Hai Chao.

It seemed the guild attracted a lot of undesirable characters, like a trash can.

Watching the people below resisting, Lie Yan and the other Hai Chao members didn’t get angry but laughed. They were all war maniacs, and blood only excited them further. Lie Yan aimed his weapon at the guild and charged.

This wouldn’t do. Gu Zhan immediately moved to stop the counterattack.

However, the Hai Chao members had clearly come prepared. More and more of them appeared in the sky, all wearing red, casting an even darker shadow over the already darkened sky.

"What should we do? Most of our combat forces have been sent to capture the strongholds… Damn, why are these Hai Chao people attacking our guild's headquarters?!"

One person, falling beside Gu Zhan, gritted his teeth and muttered.

Gu Zhan had actually been considering this possibility for a while. Now, his worries had become reality.

They had always assumed the guild would be a safe zone, and that the only things worth fighting for were the few marked strongholds. The guild wasn’t seen as a target. Naturally, no one would think to attack it.

But… the Hai Chao madmen’s logic couldn’t be measured by normal standards.

They probably didn’t care about the strongholds at all. As long as they could kill, they were happy.

Amid the chaos, Mo Tuo appeared in the corner, casting Gu Zhan a somewhat amused glance, as if asking whether he needed help.

Gu Zhan didn’t respond. This was a player conflict, and it wouldn’t be appropriate for monsters to intervene.

However, since he was still in the monster faction, Gu Zhan relaxed the restrictions on his watch, and his full power was revealed in Chun Bai Cheng.

The dark clouds in the sky were blown away, and the dark red hue faded. The bright, scorching sunlight took over. The Hai Chao members exposed to the sunlight screamed in pain. The sunlight was highly damaging to them! The searing heat seemed to be cracking their skin, and their eyes couldn’t even open!

Even those who tried to force their eyes open could see nothing.

Many of the Hai Chao members flying in the sky began to fall.

Seeing this, the guild members also panicked, fearing they’d be burned by the sunlight. They quickly moved to the shadows.

But soon, they realized that the sunlight posed no threat to them!

They could move freely in the sunlight!

"Get those Hai Chao guild members out of here!" The guild members surged forward, as if on adrenaline, charging at the Hai Chao members.

The Hai Chao members who had fallen to the ground initially took heavy hits, but soon realized that as long as their feet stayed on the ground, they wouldn’t be burned by the sunlight or blinded.

They quickly got up and began fighting back against the the guild.

Meanwhile, Gu Zhan furrowed his brows.

Kripper’s power wasn’t limited to this. He had been restrained in Chun Bai Cheng.

The sunlight could only suppress the Hai Chao guild in the air, but it couldn’t fully expel them.

"I see." Lie Yan, still in the sky, seemed to have figured it out as well. He put away his weapon and flew directly toward Gu Zhan!

With a loud crash, a huge hole appeared in front of Gu Zhan, and a pillar in the corridor snapped. He could only roll to the side to avoid it.

Lie Yan charged towards him without hesitation.

Gu Zhan barely managed to dodge his attack. Lie Yan stood still without pursuing, his hands gathering two fireballs which he threw towards Gu Zhan. The fireballs seemed to have a mind of their own, relentlessly heading straight for him, no matter how Gu Zhan tried to dodge.

Gu Zhan furrowed his brows, creating a water curtain to shield himself.

The fireballs collided with the water curtain with a sizzling sound. The flames were extinguished, and the two dark, mysterious objects fell to the ground, disintegrating into powder that was quickly scattered by the wind.

The small spider-like creature clinging to the nearby wall was angered, rushing towards Lie Yan.

With the little creature’s help, Gu Zhan took a moment to look around at the other guild members.

Hai Chao’s attack was like an all-out assault. Their main objective wasn’t to kill, but to destroy the guild.

This area was originally a residential district, with little defense. Furthermore, Yu Ye Zhou and Yang Lin had taken most of the combat forces with them to the stronghold battles, leaving the guild vulnerable to Hai Chao’s attack!

In just a few minutes, most of the guild’s buildings had been destroyed.

Beyond the collapsed walls, a more terrifying world revealed itself.

The sky outside had grown even darker, and large mists were rising from the ground, enveloping all the buildings in dim light and fog.

Visibility was further obstructed, and within the fog, large shadows could be seen slowly moving.

Beep beep…

Gu Zhan’s system emitted a sharp alarm.

He quickly opened the map and found it blurred by the fog, with only a few red, blue, and yellow dots shining through the mist.

The Chun Bai Cheng itself had undergone a change.

Gu Zhan had known it was only a matter of time before the system took action. It couldn’t just stand idly by while Hai Chao exploited the bugs and turned into monsters.

But once the monsters entered the scene, they didn’t distinguish between factions; they attacked everyone indiscriminately.

The guild was no longer safe.

Gu Zhan immediately made a decision, turning and shouting to everyone in the guild, “Retreat! Find a way to escape!”

“Hurry and leave the guild! Try to reach the strongholds!”

At this point, collective action was extremely dangerous. Gu Zhan raised several water curtains to block the guild members’ line of sight, creating an opportunity for them to escape. The guild members noticed the changes outside and quickly understood Gu Zhan’s intent. They gave up fighting Hai Chao members and seized the chance to scatter in all directions.

Lie Yan hadn’t expected the situation to change so quickly. It seemed the system was constantly working against them.

Their plan was to target the guild base, and just as they released the monsters.

However, the results were as expected—they’d destroyed the base and unsettled those fighting on the frontlines.

“Heh, what’s the use of running? You won’t survive in the hands of the monsters!”

Lie Yan raised his weapon again, summoning another massive fireball, preparing to burn the guild’s land to ashes.

But just then, the white mist spread further into the guild, casting a massive shadow overhead. A monster, much larger than anything imagined, landed with a tremendous crash, and everyone was beneath its feet!

“Run!”

In the chaos, Gu Zhan heard someone shout at him to escape. Then his vision plunged into darkness, with dust rapidly hitting his face, stinging his skin like tiny needles.

He lost consciousness.

---

When Gu Zhan awoke, he found himself lying next to some ruins, the surrounding buildings flattened, and a giant footprint left in the ground.

He was right at the edge of the footprint.

It seemed the monster’s foot had just barely missed him, and the dust it kicked up had knocked him unconscious.

If he had been stepped on, there would have been no surviving that.

Gu Zhan got up and immediately began checking his surroundings. The guild’s territory was unrecognizable, but fortunately, there were no bodies.

He sighed in relief, clutching his chest, and made his way deeper into the building complex.

His chest ached, and he needed to find a place to rest and assess the situation.

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