Chapter 30: Three Yellow Items

Even though the [Howl] skill had become very weak by the time it reached the base of the city wall, it was more than enough to deal with these ordinary warhorses. With Sun Fei’s fierce shout, the four black horses immediately panicked, whinnying in fear. Their legs grew weak, and they knelt on the ground directly, frightened to the point of releasing both waste and urine.

The other three Black Knights on horseback were caught off guard and jumped down in a clumsy and embarrassed manner.

“Damned beasts!”

Whips lashed down like rain on the black horses.

But no matter how they whipped, these well-trained warhorses seemed cursed. They remained kneeling on the ground, wailing pitifully, and refused to get up no matter what.

“Ooh, look, they were so scared they peed their pants, haha!”

“Scumbags, get lost! If you’ve got guts, pick up your swords and fight!”

“You want us to surrender? Dream on! Come taste your granddaddy’s axe!”

“Shampoo City won’t be taken by you filthy maggots. We’ll give you a lesson you’ll never forget…”

“Haha, scared? Go call your mommy for help!”

“…”

Seeing this satisfying scene, a burst of laughter erupted from the soldiers and civilians atop Shampoo City’s walls. Some bold soldiers leaned over the battlements and started jeering. One joker even pulled out his little penis and urinated down toward the enemy below…

Clang! Clang! Clang—!

The soldiers banged their weapons. The powerful, majestic sound of metal clashing, combined with the earlier display of Lampard and Sun Fei’s amazing performance, made all the fear in everyone’s hearts vanish instantly. Even the most timid soldiers couldn’t help but feel their blood boil, itching to start fighting right away and personally cut down a few enemies to feel satisfied.

…

In the distance, by the Zuli River.

Seeing this scene from afar, even the Silver Masked Man, who had always acted calm and indifferent, was now fuming with rage.

He originally intended to use this surrender plea to stir up conflict between Shampoo City’s civilians and the royal family, while also undermining the enemy’s morale. If he could successfully create suspicion and conflict between the royal officials and the civilians, even if the surrender attempt ultimately failed, as long as conflict broke out within Shampoo City, their combat effectiveness would surely plummet. That way, he could quickly capture Shampoo City.

But…

He never expected things to turn out like this.

That foolish [Number One]’s series of stupid actions violated the etiquette and traditions of battlefield negotiations, giving the other side a legitimate reason to attack. Not only did he lose his own life, but the enemy seized the opportunity to boost their own morale while severely damaging the morale of the Black-Armored Soldiers formation!

“Damn it…”

The Silver Masked Man couldn’t help but curse. For some reason, he suddenly felt that capturing Shampoo City might not be as easy as he had originally thought.

“Master, let me go kill that reckless Three-Star Warrior for you!”

The Three-Star Warrior Lund thought this was a good chance to show off, so he quickly rode forward and requested.

Other Black Knights couldn’t hold back either.

Seeing their comrades killed one by one, the Black Knights felt that their dignity as the Silver Masked Man’s personal guards was being challenged. They all clamored to launch an immediate attack on the city and slaughter everyone in Shampoo.

But—

The Silver Masked Man tightly gripped his horsewhip.

His knuckles turned slightly white from the excessive force, clearly struggling to contain his inner anger.

After thinking for a moment, he surprisingly stopped his subordinates. Unexpectedly, he waved his hand and said quietly, “Pass on my order: the army holds its position. We will begin the attack after lunch!”

Lund and the Black Knights were startled; they hadn’t expected such a command.

“Those lowly farmers are currently riding high on morale. Attacking now would play right into that idiot king’s trap…” The Silver Masked Man pointed his horsewhip toward distant Shampoo City and calmly said, “By noon, when their morale drops, that will be our chance. We attack immediately then, deploying all the Siege Ladders and equipment to the battlefield. I want to capture this wretched little city within half an hour, then sack it for three days to avenge my brave warriors!”

After saying this, the Silver Masked Man shouted angrily, turned his horse, and rode back.

…

On top of Shampoo City’s walls.

Three minutes later.

Sun Fei and Brook looked at each other, baffled.

Everyone on the city wall had thought that after Lampard killed the Black Knight, the enemy would be so enraged that they would counterattack. The soldiers had long prepared for battle…

But who knew? Three or four minutes passed, and the expected fierce assault never came. The Black-Armored Soldiers formation still maintained its original position, firmly holding the bridge, neither advancing nor retreating, staying just outside the range of the arrows, watching intently.

“What the hell is going on?”

Sun Fei was completely lost. He thought the enemy commander’s head might have been kicked by a donkey. They kept acting unpredictably, always breaking from the usual tactics; were they playing some tricky game again?

The honest Brook lowered his head, thinking hard.

He found the enemy’s mysterious commander’s intentions hard to figure out. Though the expected storm-like attack hadn’t come, it seemed an even greater and more terrifying storm was brewing within this calm.

Appointed by His Majesty the King as the temporary overall commander of Shampoo City’s defense, Brook felt a heavy responsibility. He had to figure out the enemy’s intentions as quickly as possible.

After thinking for a while, Brook looked toward the surrounding mountains.

To ensure the enemy wasn’t attacking from elsewhere, Brook ordered a dozen or so clever soldiers to go to the peaks on the other three sides of Shampoo City to keep watch, preventing the enemy from sending experts to climb the cliffs and launch a surprise attack.

Another ten-plus minutes passed.

As time slowly went by, the atmosphere on the city wall began to change.

Sun Fei suddenly noticed that some soldiers were clearly becoming lax. Their grip on their weapons loosened a bit, and their gaze toward the outside looked listless. If, half an hour earlier, the soldiers’ spirits and morale were like a strong bow drawn to the full moon, then now, that bow had quietly slackened.

This was not good.

They had worked so hard to boost morale, only to have it quickly drained away by the enemy’s strange actions. The feeling was like mustering all your strength for a heavy punch, only to miss the target and hit empty air—extremely frustrating.

Out of nowhere, a line from a middle school text Sun Fei had learned in his previous life popped into his mind—

The Discussion of Cao Gui and the Battle.

The first drum summons energy, the second weakens it, the third exhausts it!

“Could it be that the enemy commander, who’s never shown himself, is using the same strategy as Cao Gui? If so…”

Sun Fei’s heart skipped a beat.

If that were really the case, it would be quite troublesome.

There was a lot of information revealed here; the most obvious was that the enemy commander was far more formidable than he had imagined. Not only was he good at controlling himself, but he was also skilled at understanding human psychology. Morale could be a big or small thing; if used well, it could often directly decide the outcome of a battle.

What should they do now?

Even though he guessed the enemy’s intention, Sun Fei couldn’t immediately find a way to counter it.

Clearly, the enemy’s mysterious commander was using an open strategy. Even if seen through, given Shampoo City’s current situation, unless they took the initiative to break the stalemate, they couldn’t regain the upper hand in morale. But for Shampoo City, with its few soldiers and commanders, giving up their geographical advantage to attack actively was no different from suicide.

But if they continued waiting like this, keeping every soldier’s nerves tense at all times, sooner or later, they would break under the immense pressure.

After thinking it over, Sun Fei could only call Brook to his side, carefully instruct him to divide the defending soldiers into two groups. When the enemy wasn’t attacking actively, one group would rest on the spot while the other continued to watch and observe, switching every twenty minutes to ensure the soldiers’ mental state and physical strength remained at a normal level…

That was the best plan Sun Fei could come up with at the moment.

Another twenty-plus minutes passed, and the sun had climbed to the middle of the sky.

The light became scorching now. The heavy armor and weapons, along with the huge mental pressure from the dense mass of enemy soldiers opposite, made the soldiers on Shampoo City’s walls start sweating involuntarily.

Sun Fei stood on the wall, observing closely, and found that the other side still showed no intention of attacking.

He thought about it.

He decided not to keep waiting foolishly like this.

Every minute and every second was extremely precious to him. He had to hurry and enter the Diablo World, level up quickly to improve his strength. That was much better than just waiting around idly.

He turned and went back to the stone room in the Watchtower. He had the white-haired tough guy Pierce guard outside with the [King’s Sword]. Sun Fei sat on a stone block, closed his eyes, and concentrated, calling out in his mind to that mysterious, icy voice.

He quickly got a response—

“Mental Power sufficient… scanning soul fluctuations… soul fluctuations confirmed… countdown to entering the Diablo World begins… 3… 2… 1… Ding dong, enter!”

…

This time, when entering the Diablo World, Sun Fei still chose the Barbarian Character.

He appeared in the cemetery of [Cold Plains].

[Blood Raven]’s corpse lay in front of him, and the ground was covered with shiny yellow equipment and glittering Gold Coins. But he had no time to pick them up right then. Because he had re-entered the game world, the monsters around the cemetery had respawned. Countless monsters like [Skeleton Archers] and [Fallen] saw someone appear and immediately rushed over howling in a dark mass.

The bloody battle began.

It took quite some effort for Sun Fei to clear out the cemetery monsters again.

Only then did he have time to start collecting the dropped equipment and Gold Coins.

After checking, Sun Fei found that his harvest this time was quite substantial—

Three yellow items had appeared: a shield with sharp barbs, a uniquely shaped short sword gleaming with a cold light, and a pair of very finely crafted bronze gloves.

However, these three items had not been identified yet, so their exact power was still unknown.

Besides the yellow items, there were also three blue items of a slightly lower grade. Sun Fei collected those into his backpack as well; he estimated they could sell for a fair amount of money.

The monsters directly dropped a total of 600 Gold Coins, which Sun Fei gleefully gathered up.

After finishing all this, he focused his will and opened the character attributes panel—