As Ziyan Liuyun spoke from midair, Lu Xingluo standing before the entrance to their base had gone deathly pale.
He hadn't expected Jiuxiao Longyun to lose — let alone lose so spectacularly.
Not only had the match failed to make Zero Wing look bad, it had dealt a devastating blow to their own side's morale. Lu Xingluo was at a complete loss for how to respond to Ziyan Liuyun.
In truth, Lu Xingluo wasn't the only one left stunned. Every major faction present was watching with jaws on the floor.
Everyone already knew how terrifying Jiuxiao Longyun was, but the strength Ziyan Liuyun had just displayed was even more horrifying. The onlookers seriously doubted that even two or three Tier 4 experts charging in simultaneously would be able to lay a finger on her, let alone the single Jiuxiao Longyun who had just been dismantled.
"So this is Zero Wing's real strength?"
"Amazing! Absolutely incredible! Even Star Ring and all the major super powers will have to rein it in a bit after this, won't they?"
The power Ziyan Liuyun had shown was clearly still well within her comfort zone. That meant that even if Zero Wing might not have as many Tier 4 experts as Star Ring and its allies out in the open world, in a five-versus-four scenario, Star Ring and the super powers wouldn't be able to claim the advantage — and might even find themselves on the back foot.
"Beautifully done!" Bumie Zhanxin couldn't help but praise as he looked at Ziyan Liuyun hovering in midair. "Star Ring's side just lost another Tier 4 expert. Even if Lu Xingluo turns on us, our chances of rescuing people just got a whole lot better!"
Standing beside him, Huanyu nodded in agreement.
This battle carried enormous weight for them. If Lu Xingluo handled things poorly from here, he'd become a laughingstock across the entire server. His ambitions were enormous — he'd been planning to use this opportunity to vault Star Ring into the ranks of the Five Great Super Guilds. But that first step had just been decisively cut off by Ziyan Liuyun.
If the crowd weren't still watching, Lu Xingluo would probably have spat blood on the spot.
Just when everyone expected him to fly into a rage, Lu Xingluo did something unexpected — he smiled.
"Good! Very good! Truly worthy of being one of Zero Wing's top experts. Your strength really is remarkable." Lu Xingluo looked up at Ziyan Liuyun and said with a grin, "Fine. We'll release the prisoners right now."
"Guild Leader?" The Sword Demon at his side — a player who had reached Tier 4 — was taken aback. He hadn't expected Lu Xingluo to agree so readily. "If we let them go, they'll only become even more brazen!"
"It's fine." Lu Xingluo glanced at the Sword Demon beside him, unconcerned. "Release them."
Hearing this, the Sword Demon had no choice but to order his subordinates to free all the members of Zero Wing's three allied guilds.
One by one, Banxia Qingcheng, Jianying, Mu Lingsha, Qingyi Duxing, and the others were released from their bindings. Throughout the entire process, neither Star Ring nor any of the major super powers made the slightest move to stop it — they simply watched in silence.
"That was... easy?" Bumie Zhanxin stared at the freed Mu Lingsha and the others, momentarily stunned.
He hadn't believed a single word out of Lu Xingluo's mouth. It was almost impossible to believe that Lu Xingluo had actually honored the agreement and released every last captive without a second thought.
But at the very moment Banxia Qingcheng, Mu Lingsha, and the others were set free — "Run! Fire Dance and the others, you need to run! It's a trap!" Banxia Qingcheng screamed the instant her restraints were removed.
But before she could even finish, a triple-tiered magic array bloomed into existence in midair, centered on Star Ring's base. In the span of a heartbeat, a magical barrier unfurled, blanketing an area of over two thousand yards. Every player caught inside it — with the sole exception of Star Ring and its allied super powers — felt a crushing weight slam down on their bodies.
Even Bumie Zhanxin, a Tier 4 player, felt his attributes plummeting wildly. They didn't stabilize until they'd dropped a full thirty percent.
"Run? You think that after showing up here today, you still have any chance of escaping?" Lu Xingluo regarded the members of Zero Wing's three allied guilds and sneered. "I've released the prisoners, so don't go saying I broke my word. Whether you walk out of here alive, though — that's an entirely different matter. Oh, and allow me to give you a heads-up: this magical barrier is Master-level. Forget about being Tier 4 — even a High-ranking Legendary monster couldn't dream of breaking out."
Lu Xingluo hadn't even finished speaking when three NPCs soared out from Star Ring's base, their cold gazes sweeping down over the Zero Wing members below. Ziyan Liuyun's Starry Sky Domain was instantly crushed — compressed to a radius of merely forty or fifty yards around her — smothered by a far more violent berserk magic domain that eclipsed everything in its wake.
And when those three NPCs appeared, every person present sucked in a sharp breath.
Victor Palomé — Elder of the Secret Hand Society. Tier 4 Magister. Level 160. HP: 180,000,000.
Savilon Claire — Vice Commander of the Secret Hand Knights. Tier 4 Sky Knight. Level 160. HP: 330,000,000.
Cabira Mette — Commander of the Secret Hand Knights. Tier 4 Element Hunter. Level 162. HP: 270,000,000.
"Three Tier 4 NPCs! How is that possible?!"
The members of every faction present stared at those three NPCs, frozen in disbelief. They'd heard the rumors that Star Ring had allied with NPCs from the Secret Hand Society to capture Zero Wing's leadership, but they'd assumed it was a single Tier 4 NPC at most. Three of them? That kind of fighting force could flat-out annihilate all of Heavenly Spring City!