Chapter 4: The Massacre Beneath Ghost Butterfly City

Shui Yuetian was unaware that his letter had triggered a dramatic shift within Li Bin’s domain, for the ghostly raven delivering the message never reached Li Bin; instead, it was shot down mid-flight and fell into the hands of Naraku.

Of all the players, Naraku harbored the greatest ambition. Even before the arrival of the Vampire Castle, he had already allied with several players, preparing to seize Ghost Butterfly City by force. Later, under the pressure from the Vampire Castle, he relinquished all the power he had gained and became one of Elise’s subordinates. But his ambitions burned undiminished. Upon receiving Shui Yuetian’s missive, his first instinct was not to consider Li Bin or any other leaders’ strategies in Ghost Butterfly City, but rather to ponder what Elise might be plotting within the Vampire Castle.

He dispatched Amanda Wind and Wright to lead their teams to Ghost Butterfly City, while he himself, accompanied by his personal guard, secretly made his way toward the Vampire Castle.

Meanwhile, the commando unit led by Shenling, having replenished their numbers, also set out towards the Vampire Castle in stealth. This was another of Li Bin’s plans: as the impending battle drew all attention to Ghost Butterfly City, Shenling would launch a surprise attack and capture the Vampire Castle, leaving the players assaulting Li Bin’s domain with no hope of escape.

Within Ghost Butterfly City, Li Bin was hardly idle. He had just received word from his spectral servant that the first wave of players’ forces had already arrived beneath the city walls. Li Bin smiled faintly and led his troops to the ramparts. After days of repairs, Ghost Butterfly City had taken on the stature of a true settlement. Five-meter-high obsidian walls encircled the city, with sentry towers spaced every fifty meters, each equipped with one of Li Bin’s death ballistae.

Behind the walls stood twenty arrow towers, each granting archers an extra hundred meters of range and increased power. Li Bin had Little Carter assign the newly recruited twenty corpse wizards to these towers, while nearly a full battalion of phantom undead archers lined the fortifications. Gru led the most elite forces, stationed at the main gate where the largest number of players were gathered. In front of them stood the shieldwall regiments, composed of other units, whose sole purpose was to block any enemy who managed to reach the walls.

Ted and Todina, with their troops, waited by the gate, ready to charge out once it opened. Below the walls, the moat remained unfinished, so Li Bin had only managed to heap piles of bone fragments at the base; any enemy treading on them would suffer ten points of damage. Meanwhile, Carter’s mechanical carts worked tirelessly, burying fifty or sixty flame traps beneath the bones, just waiting for some unwary foe to set them off and be blown to pieces.

Inside the city, matters were even simpler. As this was Li Bin’s private city, all players had long since been expelled; there were no insiders to speak of, and the attackers had no idea what lay within. The assembled players formed ranks with their troops outside the walls, but did not attack immediately. Instead, they surrounded Ghost Butterfly City as originally planned, each taking up their assigned positions.

Amanda Wind, flanked by her personal guard, stepped forward and shouted up at the ramparts, “Listen, all within the city! You have no hope left. Surrender at once…”

“If you don’t come out, we’ll kill you all!” Wright bellowed threateningly beside her.

Behind them, several battering rams and catapults were slowly wheeled into position, guarded by elite squads led by a few players.

Standing atop the city’s highest point, Li Bin grinned. “It seems the battle can begin.”

As his words faded, the siege engines—supposedly guarded by players—suddenly went berserk, turning on the very troops meant to protect them. The players’ reactions revealed their mettle: the timid turned and fled with their units, while others quickly rallied their squads and began attacking the very war machines they had treasured as their own.

“Now is the time. Have the phantom undead archers unleash a barrage; the corpse wizards are to target players, heroes, and all units above level eight,” Li Bin ordered at once.

His command swiftly reached Little Carter and Gru, who exchanged a glance before turning to direct their respective troops.

The hapless attackers had no time to recover from the chaos below before a rain of arrows descended from the walls, blanketing every enemy within three hundred and fifty meters. As they struggled to command their troops to defend, a chill swept over them—a wave of greenish gas enveloped them. Lower-level players were struck down where they stood, killed instantly by the blast.

“This is bad—they have corpse wizards!” Amanda Wind, seasoned and perceptive, immediately sensed something was amiss. The players had spent enough time in Li Bin’s domain to know what forces he commanded, but the sudden appearance of level eight corpse wizards could mean only one thing: Li Bin had returned with even more formidable troops.

Wright, reaching the same conclusion, shouted, “Everyone, run!”

He turned and fled with his men, and the more astute players followed suit, abandoning the battlefield. Those who had been watching from afar disappeared without a trace.

But Li Bin had no intention of letting them escape. He smiled and said, “Now we can begin…”

With a thunderous boom, Ghost Butterfly City’s gates swung open. The few remaining attackers looked up and recoiled in terror. Two squads of towering knights emerged, clad in pitch-black plate armor that covered them from head to toe, visors drawn, each gripping an enormous, gleaming greatsword—its cold light glinting in the hands of the knights astride their frostbone steeds.

“Death Knights…” The players were paralyzed with fear. Bone Dragons were rarely seen among undead troops and boasted formidable attack and defense, but Death Knights—capable of dealing double damage at any moment—were considered the pinnacle of undead might.

The sudden appearance of so many Death Knights left the players utterly hopeless. They abandoned their troops in panic, fleeing like Wright before them.

Then Reed and his followers appeared, further extinguishing any flicker of defiance. Though there was only one Bone Dragon among them, it was a force beyond their imagination.

When Li Bin finally strode out from Ghost Butterfly City, the land outside was a sea of corpses and blood. Every player who had attacked the city lay dead at its walls—even Amanda Wind failed to escape.

Once he had cleansed his domain of these bold invaders, Li Bin ordered his forces to hunt down the remaining players’ units across his territory. He did not care whether they had participated in the battle or not; he needed a sweeping massacre to cement his reputation and ensure the future safety of his lands.