Chapter 1 A Basis Established

Nie Yan established a principle: do not defend to the death. Fight if you can, and try to exhaust the skeleton legions, but if the skeleton legions attack, then retreat.

In this way, the players of the Ni Ren (Amazing People) Tribe felt no pressure. Looking at the plodding steps of the skeletons—these skeletons moved so slowly—as long as they weren’t surrounded, what was there to fear about not being able to escape?

Swarms of skeletons had reached a point about three hundred yards from the city walls.

"Ironclad catapults, attack!" With Nie Yan's order, the sixty to seventy ironclad catapults inside the city walls, already loaded and prepared, launched iron projectiles.

Countless iron projectiles whistled over the city walls, bombarding the skeleton army in the distance.

*Peng, peng, peng*, ice explosions formed on the ground, and the skeleton legion was immediately overturned.

After these ironclad catapults completed one round of attacks, they immediately reloaded, preparing for a second round.

The skeletons within a five-hundred-yard radius were immediately reduced to fifty or sixty percent of their original numbers, but they continued to advance, gradually reaching the foot of the city walls.

This range was the attack zone for the mages. Standing on the city walls, the mages waved their staffs, and a barrage of magic spells rained down on the skeleton legion below, blasting skeleton after skeleton into fragments.

The mages took turns releasing area-of-effect spells on the skeletons below. On the open ground below the city walls, various magical energies crisscrossed, emitting ear-splitting explosions, and swaths of skeletons fell to the ground, turning into bones.

Less than one-tenth of the skeletons were able to penetrate the dense barrage and reach the foot of the city walls. After reaching the foot of the city walls, they could only wander aimlessly, not knowing how to climb the walls, and ultimately fell under the magical attacks.

The skeletons' attacks were almost ineffective. In a short time, a large pile of skeleton corpses accumulated below the city walls, growing higher and higher.

Even with heavy losses, more skeletons surged forward relentlessly.

Qin Han frantically urged the skeletons to attack. He didn't care about the losses. He wanted to destroy everything in his path. Especially when he learned that Nie Yan was inside the Sara Fortress, he refused to retreat easily.

As the news spread that Qin Han was the mastermind behind the Undead Vengeance and had betrayed and killed over five hundred thousand players from the twenty to thirty guilds willing to be acquired, a series of condemnations against Qin Han erupted on the forums, and his reputation plummeted.

Nie Yan then revealed that Qin Han was also the boss behind the Sacred Guardians, the Godslayer's Sword, and the Radiant Dark Empire. More and more players began to support the Ni Ren Tribe and condemn the Sacred Guardians, the Godslayer's Sword, and the Radiant Dark Empire. Nie Yan understood that although the Ni Ren Tribe stood on moral high ground and had gained the support of the majority of players, in the end, strength would determine the outcome.

The Ni Ren Tribe and Qin Han's Monet Consortium were destined to have a showdown.

The foot of the Sara Fortress had already become a land of death, littered with bones. These bones slowly accumulated, piling up higher and higher, five yards, ten yards, fifteen yards… closer and closer to the height of the city walls. The skeletons coming from behind climbed non-stop up the mountain of bones towards the city walls.

The almost insane attack methods of these skeletons made all the players on the city walls feel a chill.

Kalonah, the Guardian Angel on Nie Yan's left shoulder, continuously waved her staff, purifying the corpses of the skeletons within the attack range, but still couldn't keep up with the speed of the skeleton accumulation.

"Priests, Holy Knights, use Purify!" Nie Yan shouted in the guild chat.

The priests and holy knights on the city walls used Purify skills one after another, and beams of white light fell, disintegrating the bones of skeleton after skeleton below. The mountain of bones piled up below gradually diminished.

The siege battle had entered a fever pitch. Nie Yan looked towards the bone mountain piled up in the distance, and huge, jet-black skeletons appeared within his sight. There were as many as ten thousand of them. Nie Yan's heart tightened. Qin Han had begun to send out elite-level and lord-level skeletons!

The ordinary skeletons in front gathered below the city walls, piling up more and more. Those elite-level and lord-level skeletons stepped on these ordinary skeletons, enduring the dense magic, and climbed all the way towards the city walls.

If these elite-level and lord-level skeletons were to rush onto the city walls, the consequences would be very serious.

"Yaozi, use a forbidden spell!" Nie Yan shouted. Tang Yao had a total of five forbidden spells. One was on cooldown, so he could cast four more. Among them, two were area-of-effect forbidden spells, enough to give the skeletons below a hard time.

Tang Yao began to chant magic, and one incantation after another came from his mouth.

The players of the Ni Ren Tribe around him felt the restless magical elements around Tang Yao and retreated a distance.

"Master Yaozi is using a forbidden spell!"

"What a strong magical surge!" The nearby players changed color in shock. The raging magical elements seemed to tear everything apart completely.

Their hearts surged. From the restless magical elements around them, they could feel that Tang Yao was casting an area-of-effect forbidden spell. They couldn't help but look forward to it. What level could a forbidden-level spell reach?

The skeletons continued to climb tirelessly. Qin Han, in the middle of the skeleton army in the distance, saw the anomaly on the city walls of Sara Fortress. A thick, black cloud of fire quickly enveloped the sky, and a strong magical surge came through the air, causing his expression to change. A thought flashed through his mind: a forbidden spell!

He had seen the video of Tang Yao casting a forbidden spell last time. The last forbidden spell was not an area-of-effect attack, but its power was not to be underestimated. This time, the forbidden spell looked even more amazing. The black cloud of fire gathered in the sky above the battlefield, covering an area of about a thousand yards. The surroundings suddenly darkened, like the darkness before a storm.

Qin Han didn't dare to stay in place for long. He quickly retreated thousands of yards away and stopped in a safe place. The skeleton army in front was definitely unable to retreat. He looked at the city walls in the distance. Tang Yao was suspended in mid-air, his mage robe fluttering in the wind. He waved his staff, and a powerful magical torrent formed a huge vortex around him. At this time, Tang Yao was like a celestial being, and the powerful pressure made the skeletons below dare not move.

"This is a forbidden spell?" Qin Han murmured. He couldn't help but feel jealous of Nie Yan. According to the latest data, the Ni Ren Tribe already had six top-tier professional players, including two Archmages, while they didn't even have one! If he had an Archmage, they wouldn't be so passive. He was very frustrated. Why were all the top players flocking to the Ni Ren Tribe? He had tried to use a lot of money to buy off the top players of the Ni Ren Tribe, but he only managed to dig up some second-tier scrubs. How did Nie Yan make these people so devoted to him?

Thunderfire Inferno! (Bao Lei Lie Yan)

Tang Yao's incantation had reached its end. He uttered the last heavy syllable. In an instant, lightning flashed and thunder roared in the sky, and black lightning accompanied by raging black flames poured down from the sky, as dense as a torrential rain.

Within a radius of a thousand yards, it was all black fire rain. The scene was quite spectacular and truly shocking. When the black flames struck, all the skeletons that touched the raging flames were burned to ashes. Even lord-level skeletons couldn't withstand such a fierce attack and fell into the flames.

It was as if they had come to the Yama Hell, and countless skeletons struggled and screamed in the flames.

After releasing the forbidden spell, beams of white light fell on Tang Yao, leveling him up five times in a row!

The terrifying amount of experience stunned even Tang Yao. The amount of experience required to level up above level one hundred was very high, but a forbidden spell allowed him to level up five times in a row. One could imagine how many skeletons had fallen under this one forbidden spell!

The Thunderfire Inferno (Bao Lei Lie Yan) lasted for more than three minutes and finally subsided slowly. All the skeletons within a thousand-yard radius outside the walls of Sara Fortress were swept away, and the ground was like the surface of the moon, full of deep pits. The ground was scorched black, and the mountain of bones had disappeared.

A large area of the entire battlefield was cleared, and the skeletons' attack suddenly stalled.

Seeing the scene after the forbidden spell wreaked havoc, everyone was dumbfounded, and their hearts were strongly shaken. So this was a forbidden spell! Too terrifying!

Everything within a thousand-yard radius was destroyed, leaving no grass growing. No wonder forbidden spells were called the most powerful magic of Archmages. They were indeed extraordinary.

"Master Tang Yao's magic is too terrifying."

"Yeah, it is said that after Master Tang Yao used this forbidden spell, his level directly rose five levels. My goodness, how many skeletons did he have to kill!"

The players of the Ni Ren Tribe couldn't help but discuss, and the power of forbidden magic was deeply planted in their hearts. Advancing to an Archmage became the dream of all mage players.

Qin Han looked ahead. The front was a barren open space. Tang Yao's forbidden spell had directly taken away tens of thousands of skeletons. Since the start of the siege, Qin Han's side had lost a total of more than seventy thousand skeletons, but they hadn't even reached the city walls.

"No matter how strong the forbidden spell is, let's see how many you can cast!" Qin Han said with a twisted expression. Now that he had come this far, he would never retreat. If he couldn't even capture Sara Fortress, let alone conquer the entire Ni Ren Tribe.

Soon, another large group of skeletons swarmed towards Sara Fortress and launched a second wave of attacks.

The defense and offense of Sara Fortress attracted the attention of all players. Tang Yao's Thunderfire Inferno (Bao Lei Lie Yan) really shocked the players. The forbidden spell of an Archmage could be described as world-destroying. The players who were not very optimistic about the Ni Ren Tribe now also felt that Nie Yan might be able to lead the Ni Ren Tribe to resist the attack of the skeleton army.