Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

“This isn't a test at all. They're clearly trying to wipe out our settlement.”

A beta tester, who had been reborn from another settlement and distinguished for his talent ability, remarked in disbelief.

“No, I don't think the gap is that big.”

Elder Meng, who had asked for the Monocular from Ji Ye, observed Fang La's troops with his talent skill for a while and then suddenly remarked.

“It's because ninety percent of the soldiers who have revealed themselves are just Ordinary…”

Supposedly, he could only see the enemy's strength with the Aura Observation talent through the settlement core.

However, it seemed that those soldiers were somewhat related to the power of providence that had turned yellow earlier, so Elder Meng was able to tell the soldiers' level!

“Well, in that case, things will be a lot easier!”

What Elder Meng said eased the anxiety of many players.

Water Margin was set in the Song Dynasty. Unless the soldiers from ancient times became Extraordinary, they weren't really great threats to the Twin Dragon Island.

It was because the Twin Dragon Island wasn't a simple ancient settlement, but one that had created many hot weapons from Earth.

Hot weapons had too many advantages against Ordinary cold weapons. Back in Baliqiao on Earth, when a Manchu troop encountered foreign invaders who were equipped with modern troops, half of the Manchu troop died and only twelve invaders were killed and several dozen were injured!

Of course, the soldiers on the Land of Inheritance were definitely stronger than their counterparts in history. They could be Ordinary Rank-8 or Rank-9.

However, the hot weapons of the Twin Dragon Island were much more powerful than those of the foreign invaders too.

Even the Ordinary Rank-9 couldn't possibly withstand large-caliber sniper rifles, not to mention cannons.

“It won't be simple!

“Don't forget that even if ninety percent of them are Ordinary, the remaining ten percent will still be Extraordinary, and considering their large number, even ten percent will still be a lot!”

Guo Wei, however, remained serious.

He stared at Fang La's troops that were moving towards the Twin Dragon Island through his high-tech gla.s.ses.

Yes, even though ninety percent of the enemy soldiers were Ordinary, there was still ten percent who were Extraordinary.

It must be noted that, even though the Twin Dragon Island had enough resources and received a lot of Fire Cores after defeating the Magma Monsters, only two thousand of its members were Extraordinary!

If the enemies were combined, they had more Extraordinary members than the Twin Dragon Island did.

“No, wait… There are more than four thousand… Those generals don't seem to be transformed from the power of providence. My Aura Observation doesn't work on them!”

Elder Meng laid down the Monocular and shook his head.

“In Water Margin, 66 generals of Liao, 85 generals of Chu under w.a.n.g Qing's command, 108 generals under Fang La's command, and 127 generals under Tian Hu's command showed up.

“If all of them emerge in this advancement test…”

He had always been smart and relaxed like an ancient advisor, but he couldn't have looked graver this time.

“So, the enemy may have almost four hundred Commanders, and all of them are battle-type?”

Guo Wei was losing his cool too.

The Twin Dragon Island settlement ranked first among all the human settlements from Earth.

But even so, it merely had 72 members who had been rated as Commanders.

Furthermore, half of them were support and non-battle heroes and players, and there were no more than forty Commanders who could really fight!

“Another ten-time gap?

“Also, based on the intelligence that Master just acquired, those 'evil forces' also have top Extraordinary Rank-8 and Rank-9 heroes.

“In such a case, we cannot possibly fend off the enemies even if we have advantages in technology and intelligence.

“This is not just nightmarish difficulty; it's bordering on h.e.l.l!”

An Quan seemed rather anxious.

The Commander-level heroes were rather strong. If there were four hundred Commander-level generals, they could easily raze the Twin Dragon Island settlement to the ground without any help!

“Maybe we shouldn't have been so hasty!” said a desperate player who had just been reborn from another settlement.

Earlier, he had insisted on waiting for another month before they took the test, but he was the minority and most people wanted to take the test in advance.

To some extent, the Twin Dragon Island was really too conceited back then.

Furthermore, the difficulty of this advancement test obviously had to do with the interference of the power of providence from compet.i.tive settlements, which changed it from “Normal” to “Super Hard”.

If they had waited for another month before they took the test, some of their fellows would've made significant breakthroughs and might turn Transcendent, and they would've been faced with fewer enemies as some of the compet.i.tive settlements might be eliminated.

However, judging from the settlement cores that showed up earlier, quite some of them already reached Extraordinary Rank-8. Some were even Extraordinary Rank-9.

If they had really waited for a month, they might not be able to win the first place!

“Since we already made the decision, don't look back anymore.

“Just consider how we should deal with them.”

Ji Ye sounded quite firm.

As the center of the whole settlement, he couldn't waver at all.

Besides, he wasn't really regretful or frightened because of the difficulty of the test!

Li Qing opened his mouth and said, “It's getting late. Considering the enemy's speed, we won't be able to attack them until the next morning.

“Our top priority is to figure out how strong the enemies are and whether or not they have any special methods so that we can come up with strategies before they come near!”

The Monocular could see part of the enemies' stats, but only at a cost of Transcendent power. It could not scout on a larger scale.

Besides, it had already been detected and nullified by the enemies.

Then, other methods were required to acquire more intelligence.

Ji Ye pointed at the troops of the three greatest rebels and the Kingdom of Liao that were marching to the Twin Dragon Island on the Mirage Cloud Mirror and asked, “Elder Zhou, Elder Meng, which of the four enemies do you think poses the greatest threat to us?”

“Well, as far as the original novel is concerned, the answer is undoubtedly Fang La,” replied Elder Meng.

After accepting the court's recruitment, Liangshan was asked to cope with the intrusion of the Kingdom of Liao first, and then to conquer the other three greatest rebels.

After they eventually defeated Fang La, only some thirty of the 108 people were left.

Taking Song Jiang and Lu Junyi, who were poisoned by the malicious ministers in the court, and Hua Rong and Wu Yong, who hanged themselves, into account, the number of the survivors would be even smaller!

Most of the good men of Liangshan died in the battle to defeat Fang La!

It was safe to say that he was the strongest of the enemies in four directions!

Elder Zhou said, “Well, speaking of Fang La, he too has 108 generals under his command, which is the number of members of Liangshan.

“Also, just like Song Jiang's force, Fang La's troops were real rebels in history, and they might have additional buffs on the Land of Inheritance!”

Most of the Heavenly Spirits in Wu Song weren't made-up. People like Wu Song and Lu Zhishen were all recorded in biographies and had their prototypes, which was probably why they were strong.

Song Jiang's abilities as the Heavenly Leading Star were very dangerous. Fang La probably would be no weaker than him.

“It's probably related to religion!”

Elder Meng made another speculation.

Unlike how Tian Hu and w.a.n.g Qing rebelled, Fang La claimed that he was a saint based on the Manichean theories from Persia. He asked his subordinates to wear different ribbons. Most of the bottom-level folk wore “red turbans”!

Doesn't that sound familiar?

It was exactly a replica of the Yellow Turban Uprising.

It was also worth mentioning that Manichean was also known as Church of Light in another book.

It meant that Fang La had another ident.i.ty. He was sort of a leader of the Church of Light!

“Okay, let me deal with this leader of the Church of Light first.”

Ji Ye flashed and had already disappeared from the fort by the time his voice died down.