“How are you?” Nie Yan sent a text message to Tang Yao, a little anxiously.

“I’m okay. I got away. The Nether Thunder Eagle is seriously injured.” Tang Yao replied, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw that the guy riding the Wind Serpent hadn’t chased after him.

Nie Yan frowned, not expecting that the Mage Union actually had Wind Serpents. This was a bit troublesome.

“I don’t think that guy riding the Wind Serpent is with the Mage Union. If they had planned it out beforehand and coordinated with each other, there’s no way I would’ve escaped,” Tang Yao said, recalling the battle just now.

Even if he wasn’t with the Mage Union, Nie Yan was certain that the newcomer was an enemy.

On the Brilliant Knife Edge’s side, the battle had also ended. Brilliant Knife Edge, Watery Rose, and over sixty other elite members had escaped. After a careful count, the Undying Scourge had suffered a loss of 1,200 in this conflict. As for the Mage Union and Holy Guardians, their losses amounted to 5,000, with some people even dying two or three times.

Both sides suffered heavy losses. At this rate, the Mage Union and Holy Guardians hadn’t gained any advantage.

Friction between guilds was just a war of attrition. Whoever couldn’t hold on first would lose.

Although the Undying Scourge brothers lost a lot of equipment after dying, these losses were nothing to the wealthy Nie Yan.

Nie Yan was provoked by the Mage Union and Holy Guardians. The Undying Scourge wasn’t actively starting wars because they wanted to accumulate contribution points as quickly as possible during this period and snatch the Hilton Fortress’ land. Dragging things into a war would be unfavorable to the Undying Scourge. The Mage Union and Holy Guardians accumulated contribution points much slower than the Undying Scourge, so Kuangfa couldn’t hold back. If they didn’t drag the Undying Scourge into a war, the Undying Scourge would eventually snatch all the Hilton Fortress’ land!

The Undying Scourge players were careful to guard against ambushes, but in the end, they were still caught off guard and ambushed by the Mage Union. The Undying Scourge suffered a bit of a loss from this.

However, this kind of damage couldn’t hurt the Undying Scourge’s foundation. Players who dropped a level could level back up in no time. As for the lost equipment, the Undying Scourge had no shortage of money!

The Undying Scourge players all returned to the city to rest. Nie Yan thought for a while. Since the battle was over, he should return to Hilton first.

Just as he was about to return to the city, Nie Yan received a message from Guo Huai.

“Nie Yan, take a look at the official website forum.”

Nie Yan opened the official website forum, where many videos were posted with the title, “The Undying Scourge’s Defeat.”

The content of the videos was a section of the battle, showing the Undying Scourge being surrounded and routed. The parts where the Mage Union and Holy Guardians suffered heavy losses were cut out. These videos immediately caused a sensation on the official website and were pinned at the top.

“The Undying Scourge was defeated?”

“Why is there no news from the Undying Scourge?”

“I heard that the Undying Scourge was indeed defeated and returned to Hilton Fortress. They’re currently gathered in that villa in Hilton Fortress.”

“This is the Undying Scourge’s first defeat.”

Those players who didn’t know what was going on were discussing it. Some Undying Scourge players refuted the videos, but they were quickly buried by various means. Nearly several hundred videos occupied a large part of the front page of the forum's Glorious Empire section, making it seem like a serious matter.

Nie Yan sneered. The Mage Union and Holy Guardians’ tricks were a bit too clumsy.

“What do we do? We can’t let them publicize it like this. It’ll have a huge impact on us,” Guo Huai said. If these videos kept occupying the front page, it would affect the morale of the Undying Scourge players.

“Let me reply to them,” Nie Yan said with a smile, and posted a sentence on the forum.

“What did you post? I’ll get people to bump your post up,” Guo Huai said, immediately contacting the guild players below.

Guo Huai looked at the forum and saw that Nie Yan had posted a sentence: “Mage Union and Holy Guardians’ grandsons, do you dare to show off the number of casualties on both sides?”

It was just a simple question. Nie Yan’s tone was still so rogue-like, but Guo Huai was already used to Nie Yan’s tone. After pondering for a moment, he smiled slightly. Sometimes, a simple sentence could solve all problems. He started looking for Undying Scourge players to刷(shuā - brush, spam) replies to Nie Yan’s post.

First, it was Tang Yao, Brilliant Knife Edge, and Watery Rose, and then it was Undying Scoundrel, Essential Demon, and others. In just a moment, there were more than sixty replies to the post.

Seeing that it was Crazy Thief Nie Yan’s post, many players immediately clicked on it. Seeing the names in the first row, they were immediately dazzled.

“A close-up look at a miracle!”

“First!”

…

Players kept刷(shuā - brush, spam)ing replies to the post, some discussing the matter, and some just flooding the post, instantly pinning the post to the most conspicuous and eye-catching place on the forum.

Seeing the words Nie Yan posted, they had some doubts in their hearts. Could there be something fishy about these videos? They couldn’t help but ask themselves, what was the death toll in the war between the Undying Scourge and the Mage Union? Was the Undying Scourge really defeated as the videos described? The questions that the players had raised far outweighed their interest in these videos.

At this time, Kuangfa, who was in a church in Hilton Fortress, was paying close attention to the forum. These things were all done by the people below. Although it was a bit clumsy, it still had some effect. When he saw the post Nie Yan posted, he snorted coldly. Crazy Thief Nie Yan’s move was equivalent to launching a beautiful defensive counterattack. The players’ attention was immediately shifted, and their attention was shifted to the number of casualties, which was what they least wanted to talk about.

Soon, someone online got the number of casualties of the Mage Union and Holy Guardians in the Battle of Hilton Fortress. The Undying Scourge died 1,200, while the Mage Union and Holy Guardians had as many as 5,000 casualties.

Such numbers left all the players silent. With such a number of casualties, how could the Mage Union and Holy Guardians have the face to say that they had won?

The fighting power of the Undying Scourge was too terrifying. On average, one of them could kill five top-level players from the Mage Union and Holy Guardians! In the wild, if a player encountered five enemies of the same level or a few levels lower than themselves, even with good equipment, they would generally be suppressed. Only Thieves and Paladins could escape with some skills. It was basically impossible to win. It was rare for one person to win against three people among the players. A true one-man army didn’t exist. One person facing the siege of tens of thousands of people would definitely die without leaving any scum behind.

Like the top-level elites of the Mage Union and Holy Guardians, those people were able to squeeze into the top ranks of a large guild of hundreds of thousands of people. With the title of elites, their skills were excellent. Compared to them, the people of the Undying Scourge were too perverted, making people speechless.

With such a commotion on the official website, although the Undying Scourge was defeated and returned to Hilton Fortress, no one said anything anymore.

Nie Yan and Xie Yao returned to Hilton Fortress and went to receive the experience rewards for killing monsters together. Nie Yan leveled up to level ninety-six, and Xie Yao leveled up to level eighty-five. Their speed was amazing. In addition, Xie Yao went to the city hall and bought another piece of land. This piece of land was located next to Nie Yan’s villa and was very large. It could be used to open an auction house or upgrade a level sixteen store. Such a piece of land could be said to be invaluable. Snatching one more piece of land meant a steady stream of wealth in the future.

Nie Yan discovered that more and more land in Hilton Fortress was being sold. Two of the golden storefronts he had taken a fancy to had also been bought. He didn’t know who did it, but their actions were fast enough. It seemed they had to speed up. The land in Hilton Fortress was limited. Once it was all snatched up, there would be no more.

The two of them went to the villa in Hilton Fortress together. Nie Yan walked inside, and the Undying Scourge players were gathered together in twos and threes.

Seeing Nie Yan enter, the Undying Scourge players greeted him one after another.

“Boss Nie Yan.”

“Boss Nie Yan, you’re here.”

Nie Yan looked at this group of Undying Scourge brothers. Some of them were missing one or two pieces of equipment, and many of them had died once or twice, but there was no dejected expression on their faces. Even if they were ambushed, they didn’t suffer.

When Nie Yan passed through the crowd, he heard several Undying Scourge brothers discussing in a low voice.

“I killed seven Mage Union kids, it was so爽(shuǎng - refreshing)! It’s worth it even if I dropped a piece of equipment.”

“I only killed five. The boss is here.”

The players next to them made way.

Nie Yan, Xie Yao, Brilliant Knife Edge, and others gathered together. The villa was packed with people.

“Where are the other brothers?” Nie Yan asked. There were only two hundred people here.

“The others went to replenish consumables.”

Nie Yan looked at the guild warehouse and said to Knight’s Elegy, who was in charge of managing various affairs, “Let Guo Huai find some Thieves to transport some equipment over. Replenish all the equipment that was dropped. In addition, reward fifty gold coins per kill.”

Fifty gold coins could be considered a considerable fortune. Some players who killed a lot could receive thousands of gold coins. The Undying Scourge players killed five thousand people, which meant that Nie Yan would have to spend 250,000 gold coins on this item alone. Other guilds probably wouldn’t dare to spend money like Nie Yan, but 250,000 gold coins were nothing to Nie Yan. After having money, the players who contributed to the Undying Scourge could comprehensively improve their equipment. This was worthwhile.

Nie Yan arranged things one by one.

“Boss, what should we do? The Mage Union and Holy Guardians have already attacked first. Are we still going to continue to back down? If the tiger doesn’t show its power, will they treat us like sick cats?” Undying Scoundrel said to the side.

“That’s right, Boss Nie Yan, we’ve been bullied.”

After Undying Scoundrel said this, the people below were also indignant.