Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“He was a hero when alive, and he is still a hero after his death… Sister Li, I like the first two lines of your poem, but I don't agree with the last two lines.”
“If I were him, I would've taken the boat and escaped home. A real man shouldn't feel embarra.s.sed about one or two failures. I agree with what Du Mu wrote. A man should be able to tolerate humiliations, and Xiang Yu could've come back with the reinforcements in his hometown!”
Not far away from Fis.h.i.+ng City, at another settlement that was near the river, a slightly teasing voice came.
“Master Pei… Don't you think that it's rather… insensitive and inconsiderate?”
Chu Yin was a little bit surprised as she gazed at the middle-aged man who was dressed in an ancient style with a long black cloak that had a golden edge.
“No, it's certainly not. I'm just expressing my feelings. I'm certainly not condescending at all or bragging about myself!
“I truly think that if Brother Xiang Yu had pa.s.sed the river and returned to his own town, the odds of me winning the war would've been no greater than ten percent!”
The middle-aged man put on an expression as if he had been greatly wronged.
Chu Yin was rather speechless.
You are an emperor who established an empire. Do you really not care about your image at all?
Indeed, not many people were called Master Pei in history, and only one of them had ever started an empire.
He was none other than Liu Bang, the founder of the Han Dynasty!
As one of the famous rogue emperors in history, Liu Bang had accepted the summoning of Dragon City before he became an emperor or even started a rebellion.
Therefore, he was not really as majestic as everybody thought. Or rather, he was super “down to earth” compared to other heroes.
Some of the heroes of Dragon City, such as Zhou Yu, had voluntarily learned modern culture from the players.
But in fact, Zhou Yu had been learning specific knowledge from the players, and he had always been proud during the learning. It was like the graduate of a famous college doing an interns.h.i.+p at a construction site. He was a fast learner but not exactly approachable to everybody.
Liu Bang, on the other hand, joined the community of the players very quickly.
The modern slang and memes that he spoke made it hard for anyone to believe that he was actually from ancient times.
That was partly due to his personality. After all, he was probably the most shameless emperor in history. When Xiang Yu threatened to boil his father alive, he even shouted “save a bowl of soup for me”.
“Sister Chun Yin, you're so boring. I like talking to Brother Bug better.”
Seeing that Chu Yin didn't reply at all in a long time, as if she was lost for words, Liu Bang mumbled again.
“My name is Chu Yin!”
Chu Yin finally couldn't help but correct him.
“On the other hand, do you really think the Overlord down below can't hear what you say?”
In front of the settlement named Hongmen where they were standing, there was a large group of riders who were as overwhelming as a dark cloud. All of the riders wore black armor, held black s.h.i.+elds, and rode tall magnificent horses that were covered in black scales!
[Flood Dragon Horse]
[Level: Extraordinary Rank-5]
[Rarity: Elite]
[Description: Contains the bloodline of Transcendent Flood Dragons and boasts the ability to gallop in midair.]
At the center of the eight thousand riders was a tall and strong general who was more than 1.9 meters tall. He wore a battle robe that had dragon scales and rode a horse that was even more magnificent than any of the other horses. He had overlapping purple pupils in his eyes.
He was none other than Xiang Yu, Liu Bang's “sworn brother”, a Legendary hero, and the famous Overlord of Western Chu in history.
[Xiang Yu]
[Level: Transcendent Rank-6]
[Rarity: Legendary]
[Description: Xiang Yu, the Overlord of Western Chu, is known as a great militarist and an unparalleled warrior!]
“Xiang Yu!”
“The Overlord!”
Unlike the live streams that were from fixed perspectives, this time, the viewers on Earth could choose any heroes or any settlements to watch. Despite the many choices of heroes, the number of Xiang Yu's viewers was among the top three.
After all, from any perspective, he could be counted as one of the toughest generals in ancient times.
“I wonder if Consort Yu is in Dragon City.”
“Hongmen, Liu Bang, and Xiang Yu? Are Liu Bang and Xiang Yu going to fight each other?”
“Probably not. Look, their troops are all facing the outside, so they must be partners.”
“My king, keep it up! Liu Bang just mocked you! You should work harder and slap him in the face!”
When Xiang Yu and Liu Bang appeared in the same settlement, those who were familiar with the history were quite excited.
“Who do you think is stronger, Xiang Yu or Lü Bu?”
“Even an idiot knows that Xiang Yu is stronger. Lü Bu is just a Quasi Legend. His settlement was already destroyed by aliens a month ago. How can he compare to the Overlord?”
“Exactly. Xiang Yu is definitely stronger. According to the experts, Xiang Yu and Lü Bu both carried the bloodline of Kolea, but Xiang Yu's bloodline is purer!”
“LOL. The country of thieves is trying to steal again. Are you worried that your last settlement will be destroyed?”
Even the players from Kolea and Jaipan, both of which belonged to the cultural circle of Chidragon, were curious about Xiang Yu's combat ability and argued on the forum.
“In my opinion, Xiang Yu can defeat an alien race on his own.”
“Not so easy. Look, the aliens that are coming aren't simple!”
The earth was rumbling as if an earthquake were going on. Several magnificent shadows were pressing close to the Hongmen settlement!
They were aliens named Mountain Giants. They could control earth and mountains, and their capabilities were proportional to their size.
The approaching shadows were almost four hundred meters tall, and human beings were nothing but ants in their presence. The reconnaissance showed that they were Transcendent Rank-5 with Perfect ratings!
The only good thing was that there were only four of them in total.
Wait, not just four.
Those Mountain Giants were covered in a layer of flames and held a fiery weapon. They even had another head that was made of flames over their own head. The fire was created by Transcendent aliens known as Fire Lords, which were elemental creatures that could freely dissect their bodies.
Not just human beings, the aliens were good at teamwork too.
When the two types of aliens joined their powers, the combat ability of the four Mountain Giants was easily improved to Transcendent Rank-6.
In the fusion state, the Fiery Mountain Giant Lord rolled forward towards the Hongmen settlement like an enormous wheel.
A width of several kilometers was melted into magma in its way. All plants and gra.s.ses were burnt. They seemed to be creating a river of magma!
Undoubtedly, all they needed to do was to roll on. They didn't even need to control the earth or cause landslides. They could destroy the branch settlement of Hongmen with nothing but their bodies.
Xiang Yu, on the other hand, had arranged his soldiers in a battle formation outside of the settlement.
Obviously, he intended to fend off the enemy from the settlement!
“Soldiers, follow me and cross the river!”
Looking at the four Fiery Mountain Giant Lords that were rolling close, Xiang Yu didn't retreat into the settlement at all. Instead, he jumped off his horse and moved forward. His body, wearing the dragon-scaled armor, became larger with each step. He changed from two meters to five meters, ten meters, and so on. By the time he entered the river, he was already more than a hundred meters tall!
“Fight!”
Hearing Xiang Yu's command, the soldiers echoed at the same time.
“Roar!”
The eight thousand horses that they were riding roared at the same time and galloped with their limbs that were covered in black scales.
They were faster and faster and they reached the river in the blink of an eye. Then, they charged into the river, which was more than thirty meters deep and a thousand meters wide.
All the eight thousand soldiers were submerged in the river. They didn't even cause a wave!
Wait, there was a wave!
When the last soldier leaped into the river, the river roiled violently, and a few seconds later, a roaring black Flood Dragon soared to the sky carrying more than a million tons of water!
Wait, it wasn't really a Flood Dragon.
It was actually a Black Dragon Battle Formation that the soldiers formed by connecting each other's Flood Dragon Horse. Instead of one, there were eight black Flood Dragons as well as a tremendous amount of water.
To control water was the naturally endowed ability of the dragon-blood creatures. Eight black Flood Dragons, which carried more than eight million tons of water, surrounded Xiang Yu who was already three hundred meters tall and formed a majestic River Dragon Armor.
In the end, the magnificent horse that Xiang Yu rode before neighed too.
Its size significantly expanded in the sky. It turned into a black dragon that was full of metal scales at first. Then, it reduced into a spear that was more than three hundred kilometers long in the hands of the gargantuan Overlord!
With eight black Flood Dragons around himself, and holding the dragon spear, the Overlord of Western Chu was quickly approaching Transcendent Rank-7!
“Die!”
The enormous black spear slashed forward and smashed the first Mountain Giant, which had rolled to the riverside.
Boom!
The rolling alien came to an abrupt halt, and a “canyon” dozens of meters deep appeared where it was. .h.i.t.
After it was. .h.i.t, it even sank more than fifty meters into the ground, and its fire and magma spread several kilometers away like a small volcano eruption.
Boom!
The spear moved brutally and knocked the second Mountain Giant into the sky.
When it fell to the ground, the settlement trembled heavily even though it was several kilometers away, and hundreds of houses collapsed.
Boom!
The maximized Overlord of Western Chu grabbed his spear with both hands and swung it, flinging the third Mountain Giant away and collapsing half a mountain!
“So awesome!”
“Is it really humanly possible?”
The brief collision made all the viewers on earth have twitching eyes and racing hearts.
After all, the battle was almost in Transcendent Rank-7, and the attacks were as impressive as the methods of the G.o.ds in legends!
“But those Mountain Giants aren't weak either.”
“You bet. Even though they've been knocked aside, they don't seem heavily wounded!”
“You should know that many aliens who are not strong have been instantly killed by some of the Legendary heroes.”
In terms of combat ability, Xiang Yu was definitely one of the best heroes on Earth.
However, he couldn't kill the Fiery Mountain Giant Lords quickly even though he had advantages in level and strength, which indicated that those Mountain Giants were strong.
Another reason was that the Mountain Giants were too huge. Any of them weighed more than ten million tons.
Also, the rocks that made up their bodies were very hard, and they were as st.u.r.dy as the kappas before.
Furthermore, they didn't even have the mental weakness that the kappas had.
It was because the Fire Lords, which were attached to them, were elemental creatures that contained mental energy. They could even transform all sorts of Transcendent energy into fuel for themselves!
For that reason, as the battle went on, even though the Mountain Giants were partly broken by Xiang Yu's attacks, the fire on their bodies burned more and more exuberantly and turned a radius of ten kilometers into an ocean of flames.
The fire even surrounded the Overlord of Western Chu that was as large as the giants, like the Fiery Mountain in Journey to the West.
“Roar… Roar… Roar…”
However, the River Dragon Armor made of the eight thousand soldiers roared and raged, blocking the attacks of the eight Transcendent aliens for Xiang Yu while absorbing water from the river to quench the fire.
As if they realized that their attacks didn't work on Xiang Yu, when the four Mountain Giants were knocked away again, they looked at each other and laid their arms on the ground.
There was a rumbling sound.
The yellow light that represented the power of earth rose under the control of Transcendent power and formed a stone cage two kilometers in diameter together with the Mountain Giant's body, surrounding the Overlord of Western Chu who had eight black dragons.
“Roarrrr!”
After that, the four Fiery Lords suddenly roared.
They turned into a tremendous amount of fire elements and left the Mountain Giants, forming four enormous ghostly faces that blew out flames at the Hongmen settlement where a hundred thousand human beings lived!
“You're asking to be killed!”
Inside the enormous mountain cage, the Overlord of Western Chu roared.
Boom!
The world changed its color.
The stone cage two kilometers in diameter, made of the joint power of four Mountain Giants, was broken.
At the same time, a pressure that felt like a level-20 tornado swept out like an explosion and extinguished the magma and flames that had stretched ten kilometers. The four enormous fiery faces, as if struck by missiles, collapsed and trembled like candles in a gale.
Known as a man who was strong enough to pluck a mountain, Xiang Yu had a talent ability named Overlord.
As the warrior who was the best in every aspect of the history of Chidragon, Xiang Yu's talent ability made him immune to any debuffs and impossible to be beaten back. Also, he could be infinitely enhanced by others.
The only limitation was that the enhancement that a person could give Xiang Yu depended on their admiration for him.
Take Liu Bang for example. Even though Liu Bang was also a Legendary hero, he couldn't really enhance Xiang Yu significantly.
After all, the founder of Han didn't have much respect for Xiang Yu.
Ji Ye, on the other hand, could offer a significant amount of power.
Even though Ji Ye didn't really “admire” the Overlord of Western Chu, he was very powerful, and even a small part of his power could still be significant!
However, even Ji Ye's enhancement couldn't compare to that of the eight thousand soldiers.
It was because the eight thousand soldiers absolutely trusted Xiang Yu, and they transmitted all their powers into the eight black Flood Dragons.
Unlike Liu Bang, Xiang Yu had accepted summoning after the failure in Gaixia, which meant that he arrived in Dragon City after he died.
Technically speaking, the eight thousand soldiers from his hometown who rose together with him had all died because of his failure!
Even though they had died once, or at least knew that they were destined to die if they followed Xiang Yu, the eight thousand soldiers still chose to arrive in Dragon City with Xiang Yu and remained fearless in front of the formidable aliens. That suggested the Overlord of Western Chu's charisma.
It was worth mentioning that, same as the Yue Army, the eight thousand soldiers had a Legendary feature named “Resolve”, which could make them stronger in battles when they were determined.
When their commander was the Overlord of Western Chu, the enhancement of this feature was undoubtedly maximized.
“People always guess that even if Xiang Yu had returned to his hometown, the young men there wouldn't rise with him again.
“It seems that we've proved them wrong.”
At the center of Dragon City, in the place generally known as the administration center, which was protected thoroughly by the Dragons of Providence, a middle-aged man who wore a civil official's robe watched the 3D hologram projected by the SkyNet and mumbled inside a certain office.
“Chief w.a.n.g, several settlements might not be able to resist aliens. The strategic division has decided to teleport the residents to Mechanical City, Inch Mountain, and Dragon Cave. Please follow up with Chief Fang and Chief Zhang.”
All of a sudden, the holograph changed.
Su Nongying, who held the golden Registration Book and had a more mature face, appeared with the gravitas of a person in power.
“Okay!”
His surname and the remark he made were enough to indicate his ident.i.ty.
He was w.a.n.g Ans.h.i.+, a prime minister, thinker, reformer, poet, and writer in the Northern Song Dynasty.
In terms of political and literary achievements, he was definitely one of the best heroes in the history of Chidragon.
As for Chief Fang and Chief Zhang, they lived next to w.a.n.g Ans.h.i.+'s “office”. The signs on the doors said Fang Xuanling and Zhang Juzheng.
Fang Xuanling was a prime minister, politician, and historian at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, and one of the 24 people enshrined in the Mist Pavilion.
Zhang Juzheng was a politician and reformer in the Ming Dynasty, He helped the emperor, Zhu Yijun, to initiate a reform.
In fact, even though all the settlements were in a warring state, Dragon City was still functioning normally because of the heroes who were working inside the administration center, including w.a.n.g Ans.h.i.+, Di Renjie, Xiao He, Lu Buwei, Xun Yu, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui…