At the entrance to the Stoneclaw Mountains dungeon teleportation zone, the elite army of Snake of the Body had been waiting for quite some time.
A battle involving hundreds of thousands of players was nothing like a few hundred or a few thousand clashing together. There was barely enough terrain to deploy such forces, let alone inside a dungeon area.
Before the fighting could begin, troops had to be positioned and formations set. Charging in blindly would only result in being completely devoured.
That was why Bai Qingxue had not rushed Snake of the Body into the Stoneclaw Mountains and instead waited outside the dungeon for Zero Wing to arrive.
Snake of the Body was a first-rate guild. Although a significant number of their elites had been poached due to internal issues, the foundation of a first-rate guild remained intact. Moreover, having established a guild base in Stone Forest Town, their development speed far outpaced other guilds.
The Divine Realm had already progressed from the gold coin era into the magic crystal era.
With a sufficient supply of magic crystals, a large guild with deep reserves could rapidly cultivate a new batch of elite members — let alone a first-rate guild.
At this moment, Snake of the Body had over sixty thousand elite members, considerably more than they had back in Stone Forest Town. However, in terms of individual elite quality, Zero Wing still held the edge.
Shi Feng had always championed an elite-focused strategy, refusing to chase sheer numbers.
Otherwise, Zero Wing's total membership would have long since broken two hundred thousand, with no fewer than forty or fifty thousand elites among them.
"Guild Leader Black Flame, this war against the Star River Alliance — what exactly are you planning?" Bai Qingxue looked at Shi Feng and asked.
She had originally assumed Shi Feng would send every Zero Wing member above level thirty to fight. She hadn't expected him to send only ten thousand elites. If that was the case, she would have to adjust her original plans.
The Star River Alliance's forces exceeded a hundred thousand, and the latest intelligence put their elite count at over a hundred and fifty thousand. Originally, Snake of the Body would commit all its elites, and combined with every Zero Wing member above level thirty, they could assemble over a hundred thousand.
In truth, many of Zero Wing's ordinary members would already qualify as elites in any first-rate guild.
But Zero Wing's criteria for elite promotion were extremely strict — not only did a member's level and combat skills need to meet the standard, but they also had to genuinely defeat elite monsters of equivalent level. As a result, the number remained relatively small.
If Zero Wing actually deployed forty thousand members, their effective combat power would likely surpass the forty thousand elites of any other guild.
So with a hundred thousand elites against the Star River Alliance's one hundred and fifty thousand, a fight was entirely feasible.
But Shi Feng had chosen not to go that route.
"We Zero Wing take the main assault to draw their fire. Snake of the Body flanks from the side and strikes in a pincer attack," Shi Feng said bluntly.
The moment the Star River Alliance had issued their challenge, Shi Feng had already worked out his response.
The Stoneclaw Mountains were vast, but the terrain was dominated by dense forests and narrow valleys. Even the open plains were limited in area, making them wholly unsuitable for clashes involving tens of thousands. A single combat zone could accommodate a few thousand fighting simultaneously at most. That was precisely why Shi Feng had sent only ten thousand elites — and with more people, there simply wouldn't be enough copies of the Nine-Star Polar Domain magic formation to go around.
"Are you sure you don't want us to send some of our own?" Bai Qingxue took this guild war very seriously.
Snake of the Body was now in the same boat as Zero Wing. If Zero Wing lost this battle, Snake of the Body's future in the Stoneclaw Mountains would be bleak — they would surely be crushed under the combined weight of the major guilds allied with the Star River Alliance.