But many people could not help but feel shocked and respectful when they faced such a large army.
Were they about to face a similarly large Mongolian army?
*****
"Giddy-up!"
No one knew how much time had passed, but eventually, someone rode forth in the direction where the cavaliers went to, and his loud shout snapped many players out of their daze.
Immediately after, the crowd became restless. The horses moved their feet, and the second, third, and many more people from the originally silent crowd surged forth, like water rushing out of a dam once the floodgates were open. The ground trembled once more, and the dense wave of martial artists charged to the plains beyond the horizon with an astonishing momentum.
They rode madly on the mountain path the army chose to make their advance.
"My brothers and sisters, those who are doing the scouting quest to draw the map, come over here!"
Quite a number of bold shouts rose and fell from the people on the horses.
"Those who are attacking the flanks, come to me!"
"Haha! Men should fight in battlefields! Today, I'm definitely going to fight to my hearts' content!"
Wind blew, and the clouds surged. The army moved like an avalanche, and they gave off the feeling as if they wanted to flatten the world! The armored cavaliers rode forward at lightning speed, making those who saw them have their hearts tense. With the horn blares and sounds from the war drums from the marching army, everything stimulated all the players in the area, exciting the hot blood and fervor at the bottom of their hearts.
Even Happy was immersed in this strange passion, and he was unable to extract himself from it even after a long time had passed.
He yanked at his reins while he swung his leather whip. Happy then felt himself charging forward in the violent wind. The sky around him was wide, and the world was big, making him feel incredibly free.
While he was among the advancing crowd, time passed. Many martial artists surpassed the advancing army. When they saw the large mass of black being left behind, many players' excited and strange cries rose nonstop in the air around the plains.
"My friends, we're moving ahead!"
"Giddy-up!"
Everyone among the charging cavaliers had different goals and quests, such as scouting, reconnaissance, harassment, spying, and so on. In fact, there were some people who noticed that they had rushed too far ahead and had to turn back to return to the advancing army, inciting long strings of laughter on the plains.
Rumble! Rumble!
As the scouting team left the army with the cavaliers from the flank, Happy noticed, to his slight shock, that there were more than one hundred people who followed the cavaliers to head even further into the plains.
This was what happened.
Before they rode with the army, Mu Clan's higher ups analyzed the situation with much deliberation, and they came up with a comprehensive route for them to gain points in the most effective way. They decided to make three middle-rank captains, and they will subsequently expand the number of middle-sized teams they had to six.
Based on their original plan, if they were to have three teams, Happy was to have one team, Silver Wolf will lead Knife and the rest of his squad to form another team, while Thunderous Battle, Little North, Phoenix Dances, and the rest of the elites from his university will occupy the last team.
But the number of enemy Mongolian cavaliers in the quest to kill the enemy cavaliers will not be more than one thousand. While Mu Clan's elites can get rid of a portion of those Mongolian cavaliers, since the number of times the enemy forces will send their cavaliers out to attack will not be high, there were many competitors for this quest. Because of it, they will actually waste a lot of fighting power that can do other things instead.
To have everyone effectively use all their fighting power, Phoenix Dances boldly suggested to have their original number of three middle-sized teams increase by another six. After all, those from West Region could already form a team on their own, and they will have no problem whatsoever in getting rid of a group of soldiers.
Rampaging Dragon also stated that those from Sky Demon Branch could form their own team.
Thunderous Battle, of course, had absolutely no problem his own team from the people he brought from the headquarters. Silver Wolf could lead a team alone.
Once everyone made those calculations, they were instantly tempted.
After they remade their decision, Happy, who had displayed great, domineering strength in Beijing, was "chased" out of the list of candidates available to form their own teams to fight. The reason for it was that he had too much fighting power on his own, and he could absolutely fight on his own to gain his own points.
The remaining five teams were given to Knife, Thunder, and Bar. They were in charge of leading them.
The group came to a conclusion that after they attacked an enemy flank and carried out some normal small scale scouting quests, they should be able to gather the points for one middle-sized team. On the second day, and latest by the third day, they will be able to activate large-scale fighting quests, and the members involved in those quests will be made entirely of their own people.
But after Happy was "cast" out of the list of candidates, he scrutinized the quest list again and chose a high difficult quest many sects will not readily challenge—a scouting quest targeting the enemy rear.
This quest ascertained Happy's status as a reconnaitre.
The quest demanded Happy to circ.u.mnavigate the enemy army while the friendly army attracted the enemy's attention. He was to scout the terrain nearby as well as the layout of the army's rear.
There were many requirements to complete this scouting quest.
During that period of time, he had to completely avoid the attention from the main enemy army, kill the enemy reconnaiterer, avoid the patrolling soldiers, draw a map, discover their supply line, hide his own tracks, among other things.
With each segment of the quest he completed, he will receive a lot of rewards when he submitted the quest. But because of it, the points he will get was very little.
However, to Happy, the most important thing was to scout the enemy rear, and getting points was secondary. In truth, he made a judgment based on the Chinese army's layout that there should be quite a number of patrolling cavaliers at the enemy rear, and there should also be logistics officers there.
But this quest was rather dangerous.
After all, he will be entering into the depths of enemy territory!
However, right now, by the looks of it, there were quite a number of people who had the intention to take a risk and go to the enemy rear.
The group riding with him numbered to nearly one hundred people, and they were all solo players with equipment at either the third or fourth echelon. There were a few small parties of three to five people, and all of them seem to be pretty good.
Happy thanked his lucky stars that when he came here, he wore a normal grade one equipment that was not refined, and his weapon was not a dazzling masterpiece at the third echelon. He could only be considered normal in the team. His human skin mask also hid his true face. So, in other people's eyes, he was just a normal player with an unfamiliar face.
"Hey, brother, are you interested in forming a team?"
While Happy's thoughts wandered, an unfamiliar voice caught up to him from behind him. A Hoof Shadow arrived by his side, and when Happy turned his head around, an unfamiliar, smiling face entered his sights.
"I've been watching you for a long time. You're alone as well, right? How's about it? I've contacted a few of my friends who are solo players as well, and by then, we can take care of each other."
Happy was originally about to reject his offer, but he did not expect to see an incredibly familiar face behind that face.
"Sure." By some bizarre force of power, Happy agreed to it.
Chapter 805 - Meeting Yu Yan
Rumble!
Rumble!
>
While horse hooves thundered against the ground, the crowd gradually split into small teams that headed to different directions.
As he listened to the monotonous horse hooves, Happy sized up the party where he was quietly.
Along with Happy, there were five in the party.
The captain was the young man who smiled in a very friendly manner. He was between twenty-five to twenty-six years old, and he was not affiliated to any sect. His equipment was not very flashy, but there were two grade one equipment that were at the fourth echelon, and his steed was a Hoof Shadow. If he were placed in a crowd, he can be considered to be an aristocrat with a rather high ranking.
In Happy's previous life, if a solo player could reach this extent, he was already considered to be doing rather well in the game, and he can be treated as a symbol of strength.
The other three were composed of two ladies and one man.
The man was around thirty, and he was built. There was a sawtooth saber hanging by his waist, and he looked incredibly fierce and valiant. However, what caused Happy to find him displeasing was that the man's gaze kept wandering about the two ladies in the party.
The other was dressed like flames. She was curvaceous and hot. Her gaze was also bold!
"Hey, captain, what's the new kid's name? Why doesn't he speak?"
She seemed to have noticed that the new boy who joined them never paid much attention to her, and he did not say anything either, which made the hot lady in red a little surprised. She sized him up a few times before she opened her mouth to ask her captain.
"Plenty of them solo players don't like talking…" The captain cast a glance in the direction where the lady in red looked before he redirected his gaze and asked nonchalantly, "But I seriously forgot to ask his name just now.
"Hey, bro, what's your name?"
Honestly, forming parties in this game was based on verbal agreements. There was no such thing as extending invitations or official invites. In fact, there was no formality whatsoever, so there was no such thing as the player revealing their status after they joined a party.
Otherwise, Happy would have long since regretted his decision of not rejecting the offer to form a party.
"Call me Chen Kai."
"Heh, Chen Kai, my name's Xu Jun. Let me introduce our party members to you. This red beauty is Sweet Chili, not C-H-I-L-L-Y, but C-H-I-L-I."
Happy said nothing. He nodded at the lady in red and treated that as his greeting. Then, he looked in the direction where Xu Jun pointed, and his gaze landed on the man beside him. Xu Jun said, "Bloody Lake, eighty-seventh on Demon Influence Rank."
"Hmph."
Bloody Lake clearly regarded Happy in disdain because of his normal attire, and he just gave him a faint, contemptuous look before his eyes returned to the beauty with the extraordinary presence.
"Ignore that guy." Xu Jun clearly did not like Bloody Lake as well, but unfortunately, he was the strongest in their party, and while they worked together, they could only tolerate his actions, but that was only if he did not overstep his boundaries.
"By the way, let me introduce to you a beautiful elite from the strongest sect in the Chinese server. That's Young Yu Yan, a great beauty from Mu Clan. I don't know why she's alone out here doing a quest, but heh, I picked her up."
'Picked her up?'
Happy curled up his lips, and a hint of a smile could be seen on him.
Young Yu Yan was clearly a little excited. She charged forth on her horse, and her dress fluttered gracefully in the wind, making her look just like an immortal in the clouds.
Xu Jun could read some of the emotions in Happy's eyes, and he smiled knowingly before he whispered a reminder to him, "Bro, don't blame me for not reminding you of this. I know that girl is pretty. But while she has a great temperament, has good looks, and is very pure, her status in Mu Clan is definitely not low."
Happy was stunned silent.
Xu Jun thought that Happy did not believe him, so he pointed at her and said, "Young Yu Yan's name has never appeared on the ranking boards, and I've of anyone powerful in Mu Clan having this name either, but look at her… all her equipment are at the fourth echelon, and I can't even recognize any of her equipment. Look at that light… Whew, that's definitely not the light a grade one masterpiece has, I'm telling you."
When he said that, he gave Happy a serious look that said, "You know what I mean."
And he stopped talking.
Happy instantly did not know whether he wanted to laugh or cry.
He naturally understood the hidden meaning behind Xu Jun's words, but Xu Jun will definitely not be able to guess that the person who gave Young Yu Yan her equipment was right in front of him.
Hence, Xu Jun's reminder, which Happy did not know whether it was given to him out of kindness or whether there was another meaning to them, made Happy feel speechless, and he really did not know whether he should laugh or cry.
He had given Young Yu Yan this set of equipment for quite some time. Once Knife and the others obtained it, he deliberately prepared one set for her and sent it to her.
At that time, he remembered that Young Yu Yan had argued with him a little and said that the equipment was too eye-catching, and people will take notice of it, which was why Happy did not force her to wear it. He did not expect that Young Yu Yan will wear that equipment when she left Mu Clan's party to enter deep into enemy territory.
Happy was apprehensive but delighted.
He was apprehensive because the girl had actually thrown herself into danger without telling anyone, but he was also delighted because the equipment he gave her will not be preserved in the storage forever.
Young Yu Yan had always trained out of his sight. Now, it had been more than one year since they last saw each other in the game, and he wondered just how strong she was right now.
Just what exactly drove this girl to run to the back of the enemy army at the borders and carry out the most dangerous quest?
Since Xu Xin decided to leave Mu Clan's party to carry out a quest, Happy knew that she must definitely have her own plans, which was why he did not intend to reveal his identity and continued to quietly use Chen Kai's identity to follow the party and venture deep into enemy territory.
However, after riding for more than half an hour, he did not see any sign of any enemy cavaliers around him. All he saw when he cast his gaze forward was green grass and plains.
"We're almost there. If we head further, we're most likely run into the enemy's outpost, and we'll be discovered by the enemy reconnaitras and patrolling team." Xu Jun resolutely reminded his party to get down from their horses.
The group put away their horses and carefully ran along the slope. Because of it, since they were high above the land, they could notice the situation on both sides of the hill and hide beforehand.
'This Xu Jun is pretty good.' Happy followed the party and found that he had another target for observation.
One hour passed.
"Hide!"
A row of black dots appeared swiftly from the horizon in the distance with loud shouts. They gradually became clearer.
After travelling for so long, the five finally traces of the Mongolian armored cavaliers.
"Perfect. There's five of them." Xu Jun smiled and said with a stern tone, "Alright. We should talk about the rules in our party. As of current, we will split our points equally. There are five of them. Each of us can choose an opponent. When they approach us, we'll attack. We'll do the same for all small squads we encounter. If we run into a large team, we'll earn points based on our abilities. What do you think?"
"It's a pretty good plan."
"I agree."
"Sure."
Xu Jun's suggestion was accepted by everyone.
Then, all five of them quickly became quiet. They lowered their bodies and hid behind the slope while holding their breaths as they ascertained the cavaliers' route. They then quietly went over and waited for this group of patrolling cavaliers to get cl
ose to them.
All five of them acc.u.mulated strength and waited to ambush the cavaliers.
Chapter 806 - First Battle
Thud thud thud thud!
Horse hooves quickly drew near!
The five people in the party held their breaths and curled up behind the slope. They did not move and waited for the best time for an ambush. No one took the initiative to reveal themselves and attack, because they knew very clearly that when this small group of patrolling cavaliers noticed enemies, they will definitely not engage them in a fight, but will do everything they can to flee.
This place was not far away from the enemy's main army. Once they exposed themselves and one of those cavaliers left, it will be impossible for them to continue with their scouting quest. The only thing they will face was being surrounded by enemies.
Happy did not mind this. Even if he had to face one hundred cavaliers, he was also confident that he can slaughter his way out of the encirclement. After all, Nine Yang Divine Skill provided an endless supply of qi, and he was not afraid of this sort of continuous war of attrition, but Young Yu Yan and the rest of the party will not be able to last.
"It's the Han Chinese!"
"Run!"
At that moment, the five cavaliers charging toward them finally reached the slope. The light that was reflected from the weapons from Happy's party instantly pierced their eyes. Their pupils dilated, and they cried out in surprise while they reigned in their horses. Then, they turned around in an attempt to flee.
Unfortunately for them, since they turned around while they were so close to Happy and his party, it was enough time to create a chance for Happy's party to kill them.
Bloody Lake led the charge and shot out from behind the slope. Two ghastly sawtoothed sabers released a terrifying chill and bloody red light under the sun.
Saber glares were flung out. The cavalier who was the closest to them was a big and built man. He was dressed in a metallic scale armor. Before he had the chance to completely turn around, he already felt the saber glares charge at him.
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