Chapter 637: Battle of the Valley of Death!

Deep within the mountains lay a chasm as profound as a abyss.

The miasma from rotting corpses mixed with toxic vapors rising from fissures formed a pale green mist among the jagged rocks.

This was the Valley of Death.

As its name suggested, it was a land abandoned by the living, where only ratfolk endowed with all five poisons could survive.

Leveraging this natural fortress, the ratfolk who moved through the mountains had made the dwarves of Gaoshan Kingdom suffer greatly.

Yet everything reversed today.

The grave warriors known as "Holy Spirits" and "Dragonbloods" surged like a tide, breaking through the pale green poison mist to launch a ferocious assault on the hastily organized ratfolk defenses!

"Brothers! Charge! Go for the first kill!"

"For the tribe! For Valoran—pfft, for the Demon Lord!"

"Get out of my way, frontliners!"

"My fireball! Don't block my fireball!"

Amid a chorus of wild shouts, the undead army of the Graveyard surged forward like a black mudslide, roaring into the gorge.

Leading the charge were a group of lizardmen and skeleton soldiers clad in heavy armor.

Though their forms varied—some missing limbs or even heads—their reckless, fearless ferocity was enough to chill any regular army to the bone!

After much anticipation from players, the official development team finally unveiled the long-promoted "Epic Campaign."

In those glowing green eyes, the dreaded Valley of Death looked no different than a golden land flowing with experience and contribution points!

To escape their slave status and become noble high demons, nearly every player went all out!

The boar knight charged ahead, leading the vanguard.

This mighty "Dragonblood" warrior gripped a totemic stone pillar—no one knew where he'd found it—and each savage swing unleashed a storm of blood and gore!

He was utterly blood-crazed; his dark green scales were caked with ratfolk flesh, and his tail thrashed excitedly against the ground.

"Hahahaha! Totally insane!"

This could no longer be called a battle.

It was pure destruction!

The surrounding ratfolk scattered in panic, terrified by his movements. One rat shaman tried to chant a spell, but was crushed by a cleaving axe to the skull.

Watching the boar knight rampage wildly, the minotaur warrior couldn't help but shout.

"Can you slow down? The backline can't keep up!"

"Hahahaha! I refuse!"

The boar knight roared with excitement—until a dagger slashed his ankle, drawing a furious bellow.

"Fuck! You rat bastard dares to ambush me? I'll skewer you with my totem!"

He swung the massive totem pole backward—but struck empty air.

Yet the blow wasn't wasted; flying shards and the shockwave slammed into the rat assassin's chest, sending blood gushing from his nose and mouth.

This guy had no transcendent power?!

Enraged at being wounded by a mortal, the boar knight lunged forward again, crushing the rat's skull with his claw!

But then, sharp stone projectiles rained down, pummeling the boar knight until his head bled profusely, forcing him to raise the totem as a shield.

He'd drawn too much aggro.

Not just the slave ratfolk hurling slingshots, but even distant rat shamans had locked onto him, shaking their bone staves adorned with bells to cast spells.

Poisonous soul-shattering magic, appearing as jet-black streaks, swept over him amid flying stones.

Trapped in the enemy ranks, the boar knight began to falter, finally feeling overwhelming pressure—he turned his gaze backward, begging for help.

Bro—

Save your dad!

Though the boar knight always acted recklessly, his sheer aggro had distracted the ratfolk from the real threat hiding behind him.

As a group of clan ratfolk surrounded the massive lizardman, a pale blue frost ring suddenly exploded beneath the boar's feet, rippling outward and instantly freezing every rat into ice.

"Nice job!"

The boar knight roared in triumph, sweeping his totem in a devastating arc that shattered the ratfolk into pieces!

"My pleasure."

Far away, 【Ye Zhiqiu】 calmly replied, his staff moving with icy precision, the golden ring on his bone finger glowing with eerie light.

No wasted motion.

Every spell he cast perfectly timed the enemy's rhythm; frost and flame wove together in his hands like a symphony of death.

Though his casting lacked the Demon Lord's fluidity, this seamless flow of magic carried a tenth of the Demon Lord's essence.

On the other side, 【Hu Wan】, cloaked in shadow, had silently merged into the pale green miasma.

Only when ratfolk collapsed, throats slit and blood spurting, did others catch a fleeting glimpse of dark green daggers glinting behind their shadows.

Watching the undead rat that slaughtered its way through the rat shamans, the rat commander's pupils shrank violently.

So fast!

T0 players' strength is terrifying!

On another part of the battlefield, the scene felt strangely off. Only a few players held the front line; most others dared not approach.

"Hehehehe! Try my special chem-brewed Sprite!"

The player "Chemoswallow" screamed as he hurled a vial of bubbling, unnatural alchemical liquid into the ratfolk horde.

With a loud bang, a thick red mist exploded outward, instantly swallowing the pale green mist around it.

At first, the ratfolk paid no mind—they were poison experts, already immune to all five toxins.

But they soon paid dearly for their arrogance.

The first ratfolk to touch the red mist began frantically scratching their skin until flesh tore open, screaming in agony.

The surrounding ratfolk panicked, shrieking and fleeing backward, ignoring their commander's shouts.

TableChair: "What the hell is that?!"

Chemoswallow: "Ah, it's a freebie from the Hell Dwarves. They called it 'rat poison,' told me to test it on the frontlines and report back the efficacy. I don't even know the ingredients."

Gou Shi: "... Damn, lucky no allies are nearby—if they were, we'd all get TK'd."

Fortunately, the Hell Dwarves' tech was limited; the red mist faded quickly, dissolving into battlefield smoke.

At least it didn't hit our own.

The frontliners were all T0 and T1 players from the Graveyard, displaying exceptional individual combat prowess, effortlessly tearing gaping holes in the ratfolk lines.

Behind them surged a vast army of new players, entering the game with beta access granted by the expansion pack.

Some fought alone, others formed small squads, but most joined guilds to cling to stronger players' coattails.

One of the most prominent was Longxing Tianxia, the first-tier gold-spenders' guild in Cataclysm OL.

Unlike the chaotic, roaring charges of other squads, this disciplined unit stood out like a different world amid the battlefield's chaos.

They moved like a true army—orders obeyed, actions swift and precise.

The ratfolk quickly treated this orderly formation as elite troops of the Three Races Alliance—and thus, Longxing Tianxia's members became the unwitting backbone of this battle, bearing far more damage than they should have.

But this was exactly what Longxing Wanli wanted.

Wasn't this precisely what he sought?

Without a sky of arrows, how could the "Greatest General of Guta Kingdom" prove his valor?

"Brothers! Maintain formation! Don't break ranks!"

Riding a burrow spider, Longxing Wanli stood at the front, swinging a massive double-bladed axe, his eyes blazing with battle-lust.

His scales were a deep, dark green—the mark of a high-rank lizardman, or rather, Dragonblood lineage!

By the way, he'd finally replaced the cursed fish spear stolen from the merfolk; now he wielded gear crafted personally by the Demon Lord.

"Qianli, raise your shield! Baili, cover me!"

Beside Longxing Wanli, his vice-chairman and secretary, 【Longxing Qianli】, remained calm and composed.

Though she was merely a skeleton, her movements were astonishingly agile; her tower shield stood firm like a mobile fortress.

Every flying stone and poisoned arrow was blocked by her enchanted shield, giving her boss ample room to show off.

"Got it, bro!"

【Longxing Baili】 drew his longbow to full tension, his bony fingers unwavering—then a streak of dark green arrowlight flashed!

Each twang of the bowstring brought a scream as a ratfolk archer or shaman collapsed from behind a rock.

Though they lacked the monstrous individual power of the T0 squad, their flawless coordination turned them into an unstoppable bulldozer, crushing every ratfolk remnant in their path.

Victory seemed within reach!

The ratfolk garrison stationed here had clearly broken morale, abandoning armor and weapons, fleeing deep into the valley…

But then—sudden change!

The ground began to tremble.

The shaking wasn't the thunder of charging armies, but a grating, teeth-chilling sound—as if countless rats were gnawing through the earth itself.

The fleeing ratfolk suddenly froze, staring in terror at the darkness at the valley's deepest end.

A black mist was rolling toward them.

The moment they saw it, fear crept into their eyes—and the bone-deep shiver that followed was a hundred times stronger than any battle terror they'd ever felt.

Unlike the trembling ratfolk,

The boar warrior, standing firm with his totem pole, wore an eager grin, spitting onto his blood-smeared totem.

"The big one's coming!"

Ye Zhiqiu gripped his staff firmly; the soulfire flickering within his skull emitted a cautious, dim light, sensing an unusual presence in the approaching "wind of magic."

Without hesitation, he immediately cast Eye of the Wind, enveloping himself and the skull glowing with a dim green soulfire.

"Can you see what that thing is?" Hu Wan stopped beside him, his eyes also fixed on the depths of the valley.

Ye Zhiqiu, focused ahead, spoke with grave tone.

"I can't see it..."

Hu Wan looked at him in surprise.

"Can't see it?"

Ye Zhiqiu slowly nodded.

"Hmm... some barrier encloses it. I can only faintly sense a terrifying presence drawing near."

That even his Gold Rank power could not pierce through the barrier behind it spoke volumes...

Almost the instant he finished speaking, a piercing shriek suddenly tore through the hot air, descending over the heads of all the players.