Chapter 203: Retreat

Capital City.

Roll-Cloud Tower.

Chen Shicheng, somewhat bored, watched the battle by the altar and couldn't help but yawn.

The people of the Orthodox knew these players weren't the main force, so they fought half‑heartedly; the players knew the Task was to stall time and weren't fighting desperately, so the combat looked rather comical.

"Kid, are you sure you won't go down?"

Yawns are contagious; Hui Siye, watching the polite fight across from him, couldn't help but yawn as well, "If they keep fighting like this, they'll probably fight until the sun sets—are we just going to watch like this forever?"

"Then what? They didn't even tell us where the main force is ambushed."

Before Chen Shicheng could finish speaking, he abruptly turned his head toward the city outskirts.

To the southeast of the Capital City, a towering golden pillar of light suddenly erupted, instantly reminding him of the memory when he was almost sent away directly on the Icefield.

"Does that count as telling you where the ambush is?" Hui Siye blinked, urging, "Come on, you've been standing here for so long without any mishap; whether you're here or not, it's the same."

"Then... go?"

Chen Shicheng glanced toward the altar; although the light pillar caused a brief disturbance, it quickly settled and returned to the usual back‑and‑forth, so no significant change was expected in the short term.

He locked eyes with Hui Siye, then leapt straight out of the window and headed southeast.

Along the way, chaos reigned: Capital City guards and countless players clashed, Bow and Arrow and Spell flying together, the clang of weapons mingling with angry shouts.

Fortunately, the sheer number of players overwhelmed the guards, and when they encountered a Returnee like Chen Shicheng who was merely traveling and not causing trouble, they gave a glance and ignored him.

Thus, Chen Shicheng easily passed through the riot zone and stopped beneath the southeastern city wall.

After confirming the Capital City hadn't activated the defensive formation that blocks spatial teleportation, he mustered all his strength, took a step, used Compress Earth to an Inch to appear in the farmland outside the city, checked the direction, and surged forward at full firepower toward the spot where the golden pillar had appeared.

Fifty‑plus li was not far for Chen Shicheng now; within minutes he was already near the battlefield.

He found a more concealed spot, silently masked his aura and crept forward, just in time to see Song Bingyuan embracing a monk in a mutual annihilation.

"Damn, that's brave!"

Before Chen Shicheng could finish his shock, three more players shouted something like "Art is Explosion," grabbed a monk and self‑destructed, making him think he'd stepped onto some indescribable battlefield.

"Kid, the situation looks a bit grim," Hui Siye observed briefly, pointing at Jing Luo tangled with the four flying monks, and said anxiously.

It couldn't help being impatient; the moment it entered the mask, Hui Siye's life thereafter became bound to Chen Shicheng's.

If the formation completes, it will, barring mishaps, have to live in reality; although life in Shangri‑La is far more convenient than in the Earth Immortal Realm, as an old‑era rat that must return to its roots after death, it has no desire to go far away.

"Indeed, not very wonderful."

Chen Shicheng isn't blind, so he could see the battle below was one‑sided. Song Bingyuan's side was easy to read; the crucial issue lay with Jing Luo—though they had tangled the four monks, defeat was only a matter of time.

As long as someone on Jing Luo's side slips, the four monks who find the opening will instantly free their hands to kill every player present; then those monks will surround the respawn point. Tsk tsk, that would be interesting.

Moreover, the most concerning thing was the motionless carriage box; though its occupants were unclear, even Jing Luo and his few companions, even when at a disadvantage, would glance warily and know that inside was definitely not an easy foe.

What was even more speechless was the white elephant pulling the carriage; Chen Shicheng used Eye of Bai Ze to appraise it and found its level had also reached 25, with a trace of ancient bloodline.

He even suspected that if the white elephant acted, Jing Luo might not survive a single round.

Not only Chen Shicheng sensed the dire situation, Jing Luo also saw it.

At first, he only feared the fat monk sitting in the carriage, but while fighting, a teammate suddenly used telepathy to tell him a harsh reality: the white elephant pulling the carriage had the same level as him and even held an advantage in bloodline.

Without the fat monk in the Dharma Realm even acting, the white elephant joining the battle could instantly break the current stalemate.

What the hell! Risking injury, Jing Luo stubbornly took the monk's staff, then used the momentum to step back a few paces, looked at the players constantly self‑detonating with the monk, and instantly made a decision.

"All units, retreat!"

"Retreat?"

Before anyone from Iron Blood Great Wall could speak, Tu Ge Nie Fu was the first to exclaim.

The old Russian folks also suffered casualties, but all died in direct combat; moreover, being from two different nations, they couldn't grasp Jing Luo's feeling when his own people had to risk self‑destruction to kill the enemy.

He didn't understand, but the others did.

The moment the retreat order was heard, everyone fell silent.

One must know that the death penalty after self‑detonation isn't a mere one‑year loss of Lifespan; regardless of where or how one revives, ten years are deducted.

In just a few minutes, Song Bingyuan, who had self‑detonated the most, had already consumed over a hundred years of Lifespan; if this continues, a true sacrifice might occur.

Thus, while they could comprehend Jing Luo's retreat command, understanding didn't mean acceptance.

Before undertaking the Task, everyone had already written a will, logged into the game with a patriotic resolve; death itself wasn't frightening—what was terrifying was the motherland, still lagging behind the world as it had a century ago, sinking into endless Darkness, making them true eternal sinners.

Seeing the silent crowd, Jing Luo forced back his sorrow, his mind crystal clear as he reiterated the order, "All units, retreat, this is an order!"

Unlike the others, as the mission leader, Jing Luo had to consider more factors.

This time, the Ma Ou Yan operation had already become an impossible task; the most correct choice now was inevitably retreat.

After all, the current ambush failure wasn't a true failure; the time limit for the formation‑breaking Task hadn't ended, and before the team escorting the treasure reached the real altar and completed the formation, they still had a chance to stop it.

Thus, preserving the remaining living forces now gives them another chance later; if these main troops waste themselves here, that would be a complete failure. (End of chapter)