After pulling his gaze back, Chen Xu descended from the sky and entered the military's temporary operations base.
Walking inside, he was met by a staff member wearing a military uniform.
The moment the staff member saw Chen Xu, he immediately snapped to attention, gave a sharp salute, and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Hello, Mythic Chen!"
"Uh, hello."
Chen Xu was caught off guard by the sudden outburst. Mythic Chen? What kind of new title was that? It was even worse than Lord of the Undead.
The staff member's voice drew the attention of everyone else in the room.
Soon, greetings erupted from every corner.
"Hello, Mythic Chen!" (xN)
"Hello, hello everyone."
Chen Xu raised his hand to return the greetings while nodding repeatedly. At the same time, his feet didn't stop moving as he quickly hurried deeper into the base.
This was too embarrassing. While he enjoyed being in the spotlight and the feeling of being admired by the masses, even he couldn't handle this kind of reception.
Besides, who came up with the name Mythic Chen? It was terrible. Others were called Sword Immortals or Martial Gods, but he was just Mythic Chen. The comparison was like the difference between a budget hatchback and a luxury sedan.
Cringing with every step, he hurried to the conference room at the back, pushed the door open, and stepped inside.
There weren't many people in the room. Aside from Xia Qiming, there were two elderly men Chen Xu had never met. None of his old acquaintances were there; they were likely outside the city holding back the cold ghosts.
Xia Qiming nodded to Chen Xu as he entered, and the two elders turned to look at him as well.
"Teacher Xia, who are these two?"
"Let me introduce you. This is Senior Wu Xiuyuan and Senior Zhuge Xuanqi. They were Daxia's first-generation combat commanders and are my teachers."
"Greetings, Seniors."
"Hahaha, so this is Mythic Chen? You certainly look the part. A true hero among the youth!"
The one who spoke first was Wu Xiuyuan. The little old man seemed quite carefree; he was completely bald, with only a long, grayish-white beard hanging down to his chest.
"Brother Wu is right. To reach the mythic-tier in less than a year... if Qiming hadn't been there to witness it personally, I wouldn't have believed it. A century of the dungeon era hasn't produced what a single genius has in one year.
Over a decade ago, a senior specialized in divination performed a reading. He said that soon, Daxia would see an explosion of monstrous talents, signaling the dawn of a great era.
At first, we didn't believe it. But then Ye Bufan, Xiang Longwu, Zhang Jingping, and other geniuses who far surpassed their peers began to appear one after another. That was when we started taking that prophecy seriously."
Zhuge Xuanqi spoke at length before suddenly pausing to stare directly at Chen Xu, letting out a sigh.
"But your appearance has left us confused once again. Compared to you, those geniuses seem so ordinary. Yet in this era, a monster like you is a unique case. It doesn't fit the 'explosion of talents' the prophecy mentioned."
Facing Zhuge Xuanqi's confusion, Chen Xu simply let out a sheepish laugh. He wasn't some genius; he was something far more terrifying—a cheater.
Geniuses were merely the threshold for meeting him.
Xia Qiming chimed in, "Teacher, I've felt for a long time that divination doesn't work well on Blue Star. Divination is about peeking into the secrets of heaven, but our world's will is still in its infancy and needs human help to grow. Asking it for secrets is just unreliable."
Zhuge Xuanqi shook his head with a smile and didn't argue, instead bringing the conversation back to the main topic.
"Let us set that aside. Mythic Chen, this Hanyuan eruption is all-encompassing. To the south, it threatens our Daxia territory. To the north, it has already intruded into the Russians' lands.
However, the northern side of Hanyuan is a desolate wasteland where nothing grows. We can't expect much help from the Russians. Daxia must rely on itself."
Zhuge Xuanqi stood up from his chair, leaned over, and pointed to the topographical map of Hanyuan on the table.
"Except for the small team Qiming sent to the ocean, every other epic-tier powerhouse in Daxia has gathered at Hanyuan to form a strike force.
Based on class synergy and teamwork experience, they have been divided into five teams."
Wu Xiuyuan also stood up, using two fingers to enlarge the holographic map on the table as he circled five locations.
"These five locations are the Sources of Cold Ghost Regeneration that we discovered at a great cost. These five teams will act like five sharp swords, piercing straight into these locations to destroy the sources of the cold ghost respawns."
After Wu Xiuyuan finished, Xia Qiming added his part.
"The problem now is that we cannot safely transport these five teams to these locations. If we have them fight their way in, they will waste a massive amount of stamina and won't be in peak condition to face unknown threats.
Even if Daxia's other professionals use Heavenly Crafts war machines to escort them by force, the casualties would be catastrophic.
The cold ghosts are only the outermost danger of Hanyuan. Suffering heavy losses here would be detrimental to the subsequent siege."
"So, you want my skeleton army to escort those five teams inside?"
"Exactly. The war machines from Heavenly Crafts and the long-range casting squads from the various warbands and legions will also coordinate with your skeleton army."
"Why not go by air? Don't cold ghosts lack flying forms?" Chen Xu asked as he flipped through the dossiers on the cold ghosts.
"Sigh," Xia Qiming sighed helplessly. "We could before, but not anymore."
"What? Why?"
Xia Qiming pointed at the fifth ring of Hanyuan, the massive circular city wall.
"After the eruption, the walls of the fifth ring changed. They are now lined with cannons that shoot down any Daxia aircraft. They are impossible to dodge, incredibly fast, and destroy everything in one hit.
Fortunately, perhaps because there are cold ghosts on the ground, those cannons only target the sky above Hanyuan and don't fire at the ground."
"I see," Chen Xu realized.
"Mythic Chen, your skeleton army only needs to provide the escort. The rest will be handled by those five teams. What do you think?"
"Senior Wu, please stop calling me Mythic Chen. You can call me Little Friend Chen or Fellow Daoist Chen. That title is just too tacky. I was already called that by a bunch of people outside.
I've been wanting to ask since I walked in—who came up with that title? Others are Sword Immortals or Martial Gods, so why am I Mythic Chen?"
Hearing Chen Xu's complaint, Wu Xiuyuan and Zhuge Xuanqi burst into laughter.
Only Xia Qiming remained silent, seemingly knowing the inside story.
Seeing this, Chen Xu looked at Xia Qiming and asked, "Teacher Xia, it wasn't you, was it?"
Xia Qiming shook his head vigorously. "Don't blame me. Do I look like someone who would give you such a title?"
"True."
"You should go ask Qi Xuanheng."
"Elder Qi? What does this have to do with him?" Chen Xu was baffled.
"That day, his students were at the military base, so he was among the first to know. Word is, after he heard the news, he couldn't even sleep.
He got up in the middle of the night, grabbed a hammer and chisel, and went to carve words onto your statue in Xinwang City. By the time the sun rose the next day, the name 'Mythic Chen' had already set the Daxia internet on fire."
Chen Xu pressed a hand to his forehead, speechless.
To move past the embarrassment, Chen Xu returned to the main topic.
"Are the five teams assembled?"
"They are. They're outside the city gates, watching the battlefield."
"Then let's go. Hanyuan has nine rings, and these cold ghosts only occupy two. There are still seven more rings to go. Let's finish this quickly."
After speaking, Chen Xu looked at Xia Qiming and the others.
"Since Little Friend Chen has no problem, neither do we."
The four of them walked out of the conference room and arrived outside the city gates.
"Elder Wu!"
"Senior Zhuge!"
As soon as they stepped out, people began greeting Wu Xiuyuan and the others.
Chen Xu also saw some familiar faces. He waved to Ye Bufan and Xiang Longwu, who nodded in response.
Chen Xu did a quick count. There were five teams; four had ten members, while the last one had only eight.
"Little Friend Chen, we'll leave the start to you."
After Wu Xiuyuan spoke, he and Zhuge Xuanqi joined the team of eight.
"Seniors Wu and Zhuge are actually going to the front lines themselves!"
Chen Xu was shocked, then turned to Xia Qiming.
"Teacher Xia, which team are you in?"
"Ahem, I am the current commander-in-chief; I'll be staying at the rear. Don't look at those seniors through the lens of ordinary people. They may be old, but they are still epic-tier powerhouses."
Chen Xu didn't say more; he was just curious.
He reached out and snapped his fingers.
A massive spatial gate opened in front of him. He had already ordered his undead army to assemble before leaving the conference room. Now that the gate was open, the cavalry legion composed of necrotic knights was the first to charge out.
They raised their weapons high and launched the first wave of the assault against the cold ghosts.
Skeleton soldiers and abominations followed closely behind, harvesting any cold ghosts that survived the necrotic knights' charge. They quickly moved past the knights to take the lead position.
After the first wave of the charge, skeleton archers and mages also stepped through the spatial gate onto the battlefield, drawing their bows and chanting spells.
The Hanyuan Siege Battle had officially begun.
Rate on N.U.
