Star Moon Kingdom, the Gleaming Hills.
As one of the many level-50 leveling maps in the Star Moon Kingdom, the Gleaming Hills didn't offer particularly rich leveling resources, but they harbored quite a few ruins. Many guilds and adventuring parties across the kingdom loved to venture here to explore them.
Beyond the ruins, the hills also contained rare herbs and ores. Plenty of solo players enjoyed coming here to grind mobs while collecting herbs and mining ore for profit.
In front of a dilapidated ruin in the Gleaming Hills, a handful of passing players spotted two groups clashing. Both sides had very high levels—the lowest was 45, with some reaching as high as 50. One group wore the Tianzang Guild's emblem, while the other bore Zero Wing's insignia.
"So powerful! This is what guild warfare looks like?"
The passing players stopped in their tracks, utterly captivated by the field battle.
Running into PvP encounters out in the wild was practically an everyday occurrence for them, but clashes between guild teams were nothing like what solo players could ever match.
Fights between solo players rarely exceeded a dozen combatants, with everyone mostly fending for themselves—more like one-on-one duels with minimal coordination. A single skilled player could often turn the entire tide.
But guild team battles were a completely different beast, reminiscent of ancient battlefields. They involved systematic command, emphasized coordination between players, and focused on identifying weaknesses in the enemy to deliver targeted strikes. Combined with complementary skills and magic, plus the sheer number of elite players, a single powerhouse couldn't change much of anything.
For a time, Tianzang and Zero Wing traded blow for blow, exchanging magical projectiles back and forth while healers in the rear frantically restored health.
However, as the fight dragged on, Zero Wing's frontline melee fighters began to dwindle steadily.
Both sides fielded roughly a hundred players with solid teamwork, but Tianzang held a clear advantage—and the reason was the staggering number of powerhouse players on their side.
A typical elite guild squad would be considered impressive with five or six powerhouses leading the charge.
But Tianzang's team boasted over thirty such players, while Zero Wing had fewer than fifteen. This forced Zero Wing to spread their manpower thinner, and the superior coordination among Tianzang's powerhouses allowed them to easily exploit weaknesses that ordinary players wouldn't even consider vulnerabilities, delivering devastating blows—or even combining forces to eliminate opponents outright.
As this advantage accumulated, the numerical gap between the two sides grew wider and wider, eventually resulting in a one-sided slaughter that forced Zero Wing to begin retreating.
Tianzang, however, clearly had no intention of letting them go. They pursued relentlessly and ultimately wiped out the entire team. Though Tianzang also suffered over twenty casualties, it was insignificant compared to Zero Wing's total annihilation.
"Team Leader, these Zero Wing players aren't all that impressive. If our Guild Master had given the order sooner, Zero Wing wouldn't have had a chance to dominate the Star Moon Kingdom."
"Exactly! Zero Wing is only tough enough to flex on those first-tier guilds. Against our Tianzang Guild, they're nothing."
The Tianzang members laughed heartily as they gazed at the equipment strewn across the ground.
Zero Wing's dominance of the Star Moon Kingdom was a thing of the past. Their Tianzang Guild was no longer the same organization—it was now a formidable force. This time, allied with Black Water, they had dispatched as many as eight thousand powerhouse players distributed across various teams, including not a few who were powerhouses among powerhouses.
With so many teams led by large numbers of elite players continuously ambushing Zero Wing's groups across various leveling maps, unless Zero Wing simply stayed put and refused to level up, stepping outside meant a death sentence. There would be no peace for grinding or completing quests.
Shortly after the Tianzang members departed, another twenty-person Zero Wing team arrived at the scene.
"Damn it, we're too late again!" Jian Ying surveyed the devastated battlefield and cursed in frustration.