Inside the towering structure, Zero Wing's sudden arrival drew every gaze in the room.
The destruction of Heavenly Burial's Ancient Rock City—and the humiliating situation that followed—was entirely Zero Wing's doing. The members of Heavenly Burial harbored bone-deep hatred toward Zero Wing. If not for the massive army pressing on their borders and the need to deploy large numbers of players for defense, they would have launched a frenzied counterattack long ago.
And now Zero Wing's people actually dared to show up here—in the Orc Empire under Heavenly Burial's control, no less, right at the Ancient Divine Ruin.
"Just how big is Zero Wing's heart? Don't they know that Heavenly Burial could mobilize a huge force of elite players at any time to completely surround the Ancient Divine Ruin?"
"Probably because Heavenly Burial is busy dealing with the armies of all the major factions right now, and they think there's no manpower left to deal with them."
"Still, Zero Wing is seriously underestimating this battle over the Ancient Divine Ruin. They brought fewer than two thousand people—let's see how they handle things when it gets ugly."
"Now this is going to be entertaining. I wonder how Heavenly Burial will react. With fewer than two thousand from Zero Wing, the people Heavenly Burial sent should be more than enough to deal with them."
…
As the crowd watched Zero Wing's members approaching, whispered discussions broke out everywhere.
"Uncle Yuan, what do you think Black Flame is thinking? This is the Ancient Divine Ruin. Even if Heavenly Burial can't go all-out against them, they still have the ace card of those demons and demonic beasts. Even if they divert just a small portion to deal with Zero Wing, that should be enough to give them more trouble than they can handle." Zi Qiong looked at the squad leader, Shi Feng, with a confused expression.
The major factions had dared to attack Ancient Rock City precisely because of their overwhelming numbers. Even though Heavenly Burial could only use the demons and demonic beasts for defense, without a defensive magic array, how many could they really hold off?
If the major factions wanted to, they could simply bypass the demons and demonic beasts and charge straight into the City Lord's Mansion. Given the size of those creatures, there was no way they could fit inside the mansion. At that point, no matter how many demons and demonic beasts there were, they'd be useless—only players and NPCs could put up a fight.
Moreover, using demons and demonic beasts to defend a city was extremely difficult.
Humans were, after all, the mortal enemies of the Evil God Temple. Human NPCs would prioritize clearing them out the moment they appeared, potentially even abandoning the incoming players to do so, which could backfire completely.
This was exactly why the major factions had dared to launch such an aggressive assault on Ancient Rock City.
But in the open field and at the Ancient Divine Ruin, things were entirely different. There were no restrictions on combat, and there was nothing to defend. The demons and demonic beasts could focus purely on killing. Even if they merely took out half of Zero Wing's top players, the losses for Zero Wing would be catastrophic.
"I can't quite figure it out, but the Ancient City is extremely important to every major guild. It's not strange for Zero Wing to take this risk." Yuan Tiexin shook his head.
As Zero Wing's members drew closer, the expressions of the various factions and adventurer teams—who had been watching the show with amusement—started to shift.
"You've got to be kidding! Every single one of them is over level fifty?"
"Holy crap, didn't they say Zero Wing was short on equipment? How come so many of them are wearing Gold-grade sets?"
"What rank are these Gold-grade sets? The pressure they're giving off is insane!"
"Those people walking in the front row—how come I've never seen any of them before?"
"When did Zero Wing get a whole new batch of experts like this?"