Show Me the Money

Azure Dragon City, White Tiger City, Vermilion Bird City, and Black Tortoise City, the four first-class main cities of Xuanhuang Ancient Country, were stationed at the four sides of the Imperial Capital, responsible for guarding the borders. This day, a piece of urgent military news was sent to the Imperial Capital that all four main cities had sightings of Demon troops.

In addition to that, the armies stationed in various places also reported the emergence of varying numbers of demons.

A Demon army appeared 10,000 miles east of Azure Dragon City and massacred a village of over 2,000 people. The bodies of the villagers were hung on trees and houses were burnt down, the blaze lasted all night long and the pungent smell could be caught miles away.

A Demon army appeared 15,000 miles west of White Tiger City, ambushed a military camp, and after breaking through their defenses, slaughtered nearly 100,000 soldiers.

A Demon army appeared 25,000 miles west of Vermilion Bird City. This group of roughly a million demons suddenly stormed a frontier fortress town. After encountering the desperate struggle of both human soldiers and players of this town and losing a large number of troops without success, dozens of Saint-tier Demon mages brazenly stepped in and pushed the whole town together with millions of soldiers and civilians in it into the ground with forbidden magic. Currently, that military town had vanished from the face of the earth and in its original spot was a lake tens of miles wide.

A Demon army appeared 30,000 miles north of Black Tortoise City…

News from all directions startled the city lords of the main cities, horrified the players, and shocked all the ministers of the Central Dynasty.

"Who can tell me what is going on? The Demon race's attempt to build a cross-realm Teleportation Portal in our Xuanhuang Ancient Country was ruined, so why have there been so many Demon troops appearing at the same time? Just how did they do it?!" In the imperial palace of the Imperial Capital, His Majesty, the Emperor of Xuanhuang Ancient Country, smacked the armrest of his chair angrily.

The emperor was a middle-aged man with a jade-smooth complexion and three long tied strings of beard under his jaw, a very handsome man indeed. Only his face was currently full of anger as his dignified eyes scanned every minister standing below. Under the sweep of the emperor's eyes, all ministers bowed their heads in shame, not daring to look at him.

"Your Majesty, I think the top priority is not investigating how they got here, but to find a way to destroy them all. Otherwise, at this rate, except for the important cities and towns, our country will be unable to withstand the demon's raids."

The one who spoke was a middle-aged man dressed in ring armor. His face was clean and solemn, giving off an inviolable sense of majesty. He stood in the first right place under the emperor, so it went without saying that he was the top of the military ministers, the leader of the tens of millions of Xuanhuang soldiers - the Grand Marshal of All Troops.

"Minister Yue is right. So then, how do we eliminate them?" Seeing that it was the grand marshal who had spoken, the emperor reined in his anger and asked in a heavy voice.

"Your Majesty, I suggest we first use the scorched earth strategy. We move all the resources, people, and scattered garrison troops in villages and towns to second-tier cities. At the same time, send an army to those secondary main cities for defense. Each main city should have at least ten Saint mages to prevent the enemy from destroying it with large-scale magic. Second, we form quality raid teams led by Divine experts to raid and kill all the demons in our territory. Third, notify other countries and ask for reinforcements," the grand marshal quickly proposed the method to deal with the Demon race's large-scale attack.

The emperor nodded slightly. After contemplating for a moment, he asked, "Must we use the scorched earth strategy? In this way, the people will have a hard time. Even if we beat back the demons, I don't know how many years it will take to recover."

The grand marshal grew solemn. He bowed heavily with cupped fists. "Your Majesty, this is going to be a long war, no less serious than the war ten thousand years ago."

"All right." The emperor slapped his seat heavily and shouted, "Facing our greatest enemy, everyone must do their best. I hereby order all military forces in the country to be under the command of Minister Yue. If anyone refuses to take this order, Grand Marshal has the right to execute first and then report, or simply execute without report!"

"Your ministers heed the order." All the ministers in the hall bowed in unison.

"Your Majesty, what should we do about Heavens Scar?" Marshal Ferotiger, who had returned to the Imperial Capital, asked aloud.

The emperor pondered and looked over at the grand marshal. After some thought, the grand marshal said, "Since the Lord of Sky City is in charge of defense over there, we don't have to mobilize troops for that area for the time being as long as he does a good job. Let's first clean up the demons permeating our country."

……

"What?! So many demons appeared? Didn't we stop their attempt to build a cross-realm teleportation route? How did they get in?"

In Sky City, Fatty jumped at the news of the ubiquitous emergence of Demon troops.

No one could answer Fatty's question, and he didn't expect anyone to be able to either. After a moment of surprise, he smiled. "There will always be people to shoulder the sky when it falls, all we have to do is keep this place safe."

Sky City lowered until it was only a hundred meters from the ground, breaking the tall trees and peaks in the surroundings. All 3,000 magic crystal cannons were gathered in one place, aiming at the entrance of Heavens Scar. The vice marshals of the Tiger Army simply rooted here, ready to attack the moment anything came out of the entrance of Heavens Scar.

In the past few days, many demons had tried to rush out, but as a consequence were all killed by cannon fire from Sky City. In the early stage, an entire army had stormed out, only to be bombarded by the magic crystal cannons all at once. The cannons bore big gaps in the army and insta-killed most, scaring them to flee in a sorry state. Later, the Demon experts took advantage of the night to ambush but were stopped by the vice marshals and had to run back in tatters. Now, there were only scattered attacks with the intention to probe, all of which died down under the fierce fire of Sky City.

"News from the Imperial Capital is that chaos has erupted in the country and experts have been sent in teams to clear out the Demon troops that have appeared inexplicably. They are unable to reach Heavens Scar right now. We're ordered to defend this place to the death and not let any demons in," Liu Lan informed Fatty.

Fatty nonchalantly waved his hand. "Defend it, then defend it. Nothing to do with me."

"Fatty, Fatty!" East Gate BlowingWind's urgent call for help came from the communicator. "Come help! Or else our base is doomed!"

East Gate BlowingWind was quite down on his luck. A Demon group happened to appear around his guild base named The Great Four Gate Town and attacked without hesitation. Fortunately, the Demon group was small while there were a large number of players in the base, which allowed them to barely hold out. However, the players still suffered heavy casualties and their base was going to be broken through soon.

Fatty glanced at the entrance of Heavens Scar below in hesitation, then helplessly said, "It's not that I don't want to help you, but that I have to stay here. If Heavens Scar is breached by the Demon army, even the Imperial Capital may be lost."

Despair fell on East Gate BlowingWind upon Fatty's answer. Looking at the demons charging again, he shouted and rushed out with his sword.

Hearing the roar transmitted through the communicator, Fatty sighed and said to Liu Lan, "You guys keep an eye on this place. I'm going to help The Great Four Gates a little."

The teleportation routes connecting Sky City and the bases of the friendly guilds had already been connected. When Fatty appeared on the other side, he was immediately greeted by a scene of mayhem and players madly roaring as they disregarded everything to pounce at the demons. And these demons, all cavalry dressed in black armor and riding black Demonic beasts, charged like the wind, reaping numerous lives in one attack.

The four leaders of the Great Four Gates had blood all over them from the fighting. Without the priests' especially healing them, they would have died long ago.

Fatty jumped out and held back East Gate BlowingWind, shouting, "You guys move back and tidy up. I'll take over."

Without waiting for a reply from East Gate BlowingWind, Fatty shouted and sent out the Elemental Sword Diagram.

The diagram rotated in the air and wrapped the charging cavalry, trapping over half of them in the sword formation. Leaving the lesser half to the other players, Fatty disappeared into the formation.

The Elemental Sword Diagram could take on Divine experts, so it easily tackled these cavalry demons of only the 7th to 8th enhancement. After a storm of hundreds of light swords, the thousands of cavalry became corpses on the ground.

Retrieving the sword diagram and stepping out of it, Fatty summoned the Elemental Skill Book and tossed out a slew of Advanced spells. Fire, water, earth, and ice spells flew out in succession. After a period of scorching flames before freezing ice, followed by cracking earth and scouring water, the remaining Demon cavalry troops were quickly handled, only a few dozen left fled in misery.

"Fatty, you… aren't you a little too perverse?!" East Gate BlowingWind gawked.

Fatty shyly smiled. "This is nothing. If it had been my Sky City, only one cannon is needed for those few horsemen."

Everyone's gratitude for Fatty instantly blew up in smoke and they all gave him the middle finger in unison. If Sky City was here, even a newbie could easily slaughter that cavalry.

Turning serious, Fatty earnestly told East Gate BlowingWind, "Chaos reigns in the country and demons are everywhere. I can come and help in time this time, but next time it might just be impossible. For your own consideration, I advise you to give up this base."

The base was the foundation of a guild. Giving up their base was equal to giving up on the future of the guild, which would lead to its members quitting soon. The leaders of the Great Four Gates lapsed into silence at this.

Fatty sighed and continued, "You know about Uncle Bai Xiaosheng's situation. Though I admire him very much, unnecessary sacrifices are undesirable. If you give up your base, I formally invite you to join Sky City. Let us fight for world peace together."

"Peh," West Gate BlowingSnow spat. "World peace my arse, more like to better bully people! Brother, no need to think further. As Brother Grubber said, he was able to help us this time, but next time, we might not have this kind of good luck."

"Alright." East Gate BlowingWind sighed, his face bleak. "Let all our brothers go to Sky City and take everything they can from the base with them. We'll come back to rebuild our base after the demons are done and dealt with."